No injured cavers recorded.
On December 21, Jeff Hogue (34) of Linton, Tennessee, approached a friend to borrow his truck to drive to a town in North Carolina about 120 miles away. When the truck refused to start, Hogue announced in frustration that he would walk. The weather was cold, with freezing rain.
About a mile from his friend's house, while walking through wooded country he lost his footing and slid and fell into a sheer-walled 18 foot deep sinkhole in the earth.
Hogue tried to dig holds and climb out but the walls were soft mud and wouldn't support him. As the snow melted he had water but he could not trap any, due to evaporation, and he was soon without any. He tried making a ladder from his long underwear and sticks but again the earth would not support his efforts. Time passed.
At night it became very cold and he would shiver uncontrollably. Yet in the daytime it was quite warm. After a few days he began to hallucinate. Finally he was sure he would die - he was exhausted, dehydrated and hypothermiated. Suddenly he heard voices. Then a face appeared at the top of the hole. He had been found by teenagers out squirrel hunting. He had been in the hole for 8 days.
Analysis: The victim had lost 25 pounds and had his body temperature fall to 85 degrees - dangerously low. He was hospitalized for hypothermia, trench foot and dehydration. Enough said.