Man survives 5 days at bottom of Washington ravine after crashing truck, falling 150 feet
Firefighters had to hike 150 feet down in waist-high brush and hoist the man back up using a rope system.
Amanda Lee Myers
A Washington man who was missing for five days has been rescued after being found alive at the bottom of a ravine, officials said.
The 56-year-old man's truck had apparently left a roadway in Cowlitz County on May 17, when area residents remembered seeing his little green truck, Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
On Sunday morning, residents noticed tire tracks leaving the roadway, looked down into the ravine, spotted the truck 150 feet below and called 911.
Firefighters hiked down the steep, heavily wooded ravine through waist-high brush "expecting the worst but found the driver of the truck was still alive."
While he had survived the terrible crash, the man was "severely injured and ill," the fire department said.
Rescue technicians responded and set up a rope system to help nearly two dozen firefighters hoist the man up the steep hillside after he was extricated from the truck.
He was flown to a nearby hospital for treatment.
A fire department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request about the man's status Wednesday.
