Lehi Woman Rescued After 8 Hours In Shallows Of Utah Lake

Utah Lake. Photo: Wikipedia Commons

UTAH COUNTY, Utah, May 31, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — A Lehi woman was rescued Tuesday after being lost for nearly eight hours in shallow water and tall weeds in Utah Lake.

Utah County Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to the area, near the Provo Airport, just after midnight Tuesday. The 29-year-old woman had been boating with friends when the boat became stuck in shallow waters at about 7 p.m. Monday.

The Lehi woman decided to walk to shore through the shallow water. When her friends got back to the harbor, she was not there.

Volunteers with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, along with Utah Lake State Parks officers, Provo police officers, and other agencies, responded to help find the woman, who was wearing only a bikini.

At about 2:20 a.m., searchers on the lake and on the nearby airport road heard a woman yelling for help. Even after hearing her voice, it took rescuers nearly 45 minutes to locate her.

The DPS helicopter landed, picked her up, and delivered her to a waiting ambulance at Utah Lake State Park.

A news release from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said the woman was suffering from hypothermia and sustained cuts and scrapes from walking about a mile through the thick Phragmites (reeds) in the area.

She was taken by ambulance to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo where she is expected to recover.

The UCSO statement noted that with air temperatures in the mid 40s and water temperatures in the mid 60s, “this incident could have had a much more serious outcome.”

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