| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miller, Tom | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| McNatt, Logan | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On May 27, 1982, while on a caving trip to Belize, Tom Miller and Logan McNatt traveled from Blue Creek, a small Indian village, to the even smaller village of Santa Elena. From that point they packed for an extended stay and walked the two hours to The Cave. They had been to this cave once before, entering for 250 meters to a drop into a huge room. The entrance is a river sumidero but in May the river was sinking two miles upstream.
They set up a camp inside the entrance and slept the rest of the night.
The following day, Friday, May 28, they awoke to the start of very heavy rains. Feeling this was no big deal they began mapping the cave.
At the drop, they rigged cable ladders, needing 45 feet. The room proved to be some 200 feet across and 100 feet high. A small lake lay below the drop with a small tributary stream coming out of one wall. Unfortunately they could find no productive way to continue. One lead produced a climb-up to another entrance and a high-level bypass back to the drop into the big room. They descended this a second time, determined to find a good continuation. There was plenty of evidence, large logs and rounded rocks, to indicate this room sometimes flooded, as much as 30-40 feet above the floor.
Leaving their cave packs under the drop they headed around the lake to check the tributary. As they did this they heard a "strange roaring sound," which was soft enough to be attributed to a "change in acoustics" but 15 seconds later it changed to a rumble, then "a most horrendous Crash-boom!" The result was deafening and the room seemed to shake. Obviously the river bed was in flood and climbing out was now impossible.
In 30 seconds they had scrambled to the lead that allowed a climb-up to the additional entrance they had found earlier, and were soon out. Back at the original entrance, their camp was gone, taken by the fast, brown waters.
Two days later they returned and recovered some of their gear.
In Mexico/Central America the rainy season begins in May or June. On May 28 it should be expected. To explore a river sumidero (even a dry one) after obvious rain had begun is taking a terrible risk. The cavers were lucky to have found a second entrance just prior to the flood.
Tom Miller and Logan McNatt were stranded in The Cave due to flooding during heavy rains, but managed to escape without injury through a second entrance they had found earlier.