| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson, Warren | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Liebman, Bill | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Walker, Dave | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
At about 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 30, 1982 a group of three cavers entered Sumidero Santa Elena, adjacent to the town of Xochitlan in Puebla, Mexico. They were Warren Anderson (late 20's), Bill Liebman (early 30's) and Dave Walker (early 30's), part of a group of nine cavers exploring this cave which was expected to connect to a resurgence cave three kilometers away. The sumidero had been explored a little over two km from the entrance, past 24 short roped drops (waterfalls) and 22 swims. When the exploration had begun, on January 12, stream flow monitoring at the entrance showed six cfs entering. Past drop 8 there are two tributaries which approximately double the main flow. On the 30th, with dry weather since the 12th, the entrance flow had dropped to two cfs.
The group proceeded past drop 24, to drop 25 and on to drop 26 where they turned back. Moving steadily, they passed through the series of spouting waterfalls (16-19) above drop 20 where one must negotiate an aid climb on the way down cave to reach the first ledge past drop 15. If you continue down-cave without doing the aid climb you quickly reach a cul-de-sac-a sure death-trap in a flood. With Anderson in the lead, they continued up cave, doubtless relieved at having passed through the section without ledges. At drop 14 Anderson ascended and began recarbiding, waiting for the others. Suddenly, at about 1 a.m., there was a surge of water noise. Thinking his ears were playing tricks, Anderson focussed his electric on the nearby falls, in time to see a surge of foul, brown water. Walker and Liebman, approaching drop 14 through chest deep water were caught. Walker pushed off, thrashed his way to the rope and quickly made it up. Liebman held on to the wall while Walker and Anderson jumped over to a ledge above him and lowered a long Jumar sling. Liebman was pulled up.
The ledge they were on was spacious so they settled in to see what would happen. The flow increased until the very walls were vibrating.
At about midnight there had occurred a torrential rain, which lasted for about 45 minutes, dumping 4 cm. The flow at the entrance had quickly swelled to some 20 cfs, then began to subside. The 20 cfs probably meant 40-50 cfs past drop eight where tributaries normally doubled the entrance flow. Those on the surface were alarmed but could do nothing. By dawn Sunday the flow was down to 7 cfs. At 8 p.m. Sunday no one had appeared so a group of three gathered medical and rigging supplies and headed in. The group was found at around 10 p.m., still on their ledge. Everyone was out by a.m.
In the Xochitlan area, the weather is very changeable. The day of the entrapment there was no visibly threatening weather. Since then a program of keeping temperature/pressure records had yielded a pattern which probably would have predicted the storm causing the entrapment. Also, it was expected that there would be some warning signs in the cave before a flood hit. There were none. The cavers are lucky they were not caught below drop 16.
A group of cavers became stranded due to sudden flooding in Sumidero Santa Elena, surviving without injury or fatality.