Elderly driver crawls for help

Associated Press

ONALASKA — A 94-year-old woman and her 84-year-old husband were safe at home Saturday after being stranded overnight in snow and ice in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Edythe and Charles Powell were resting comfortably at their home in this tiny Lewis County logging town southeast of Centralia, family members said.

"She’s doing quite well," Susy Bockmann-Thomas said of her grandmother. "She’s got a couple of bruises on her leg, but that’s all."

Charles Powell, who walked a mile with his walker and then crawled three-quarters of a mile going for help after their car got stuck Tuesday, described his condition bluntly: "Sore."

The Powells left Onalaska around 10 a.m. Tuesday for an all-day drive around the region.

Their first stop was to be Randle, about 40 miles east on the western edge of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, The Chronicle of Centralia reported Saturday. They then planned to go south to Trout Lake, then to White Salmon, then west on Highway 14 toward Vancouver, then north on I-5 home.

Usually when the couple takes day trips, they return by 10 or 11 p.m.

When they had not returned by 2 a.m. Wednesday, Bockmann-Thomas’ mother, Ruth Smith, called the sheriff’s office and the Washington State Patrol.

The Powells, meanwhile, wound up in the forest, on a side road off Forest Road 23. They noticed snow on the road but kept going, following a set of tire tracks.

Early Tuesday afternoon, their Mercury Grand Marquis got struck in the snow and ice.

"We tried to dig it out," Powell said Friday. But that didn’t work. Neither did pushing the car.

"You might as well push a stone wall," Powell said.

The Powells sat in the car for a while, in the middle of the forest with no food or water and dressed for spring weather.

"There was nothing around for miles," Powell said.

So he decided to go for help.

"I took my four-wheeled walker and started back toward Randle to flag somebody down," he said. "It took me four hours to go a mile and a half."

The temperature started to drop around 5:30 p.m.

"I didn’t want to walk in the dark," Powell said, so when he came to a T in the road, he folded his walker to form a chair and sat down.

"It was too cold to sleep," he said, and he kept warm as best he could, wiggling his feet, massaging his arms.

By 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, it was light enough for him to see, but when he tried to get up, he found he couldn’t stand.

"I dropped down on my knees and walked on my knees," he said, "for three-quarters of a mile."

Finally he reached the intersection of Forest Roads 21 and 23 northwest of Mount Adams.

At 10 a.m., a van drove by.

"They pulled up, a man and a woman, and he said, ‘Can I help you?’ and I said, ‘You surely can.’ "

The rescuers drove him back to the Marquis, where they found Edythe Powell lying in the snow. She’d been there eight hours.

"Grandma had gotten out of the car to go to the bathroom," Bockmann-Thomas said, and fallen near the car. She was wearing a sweater, slacks and shoes and socks. She’d left her coat and an afghan inside the car.

The rescuers used their snowboard to move her into the van, and then bundled her up and drove the Powells to Providence Centralia Hospital. Both were treated for exposure. Edythe Powell was released Thursday. Her husband was released Friday.

Looking back, Charles Powell said he’s glad they told Smith they were going out for a drive. They often don’t tell anyone.

"I just had the impression to tell somebody," Powell said. "I think the good Lord was looking after us."