No injured cavers recorded.
At about 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 12, a group of three cavers from Maryland entered Laurel Creek Cave in Monroe County, W. Virginia. Some time later the entrance passage, a stream inlet, flooded trapping the three. They had parked their car directly outside and when that area became flooded, Bob Roles, the owner of the cave, called the Monroe County Sheriff. On Saturday night the Sheriff called Bob Liebman who mobilized a force of cavers. It was obvious, however, that nothing could be done until Sunday morning when the water level would have dropped.
Though the main entrance to the cave is a stream inlet, the nearby Hilltop Entrance affords access to the main passage a little downstream. A trip into this between 10:30 and noon on Sunday showed things well-flooded. Meanwhile the rain had stopped and the top of the trapped cavers' car appeared. The water level was falling rapidly so a push for the Theater Room, where they hoped the trapped cavers to be, was readied. Three cavers with wetsuits would be sent downstream with lifelines and a boat would be taken in as far as possible in case the victims were trying to come out.
The cavers' car had emerged and been towed away. From the gear inside it was deduced that at least one of them must be experienced.
A phone line from the Hilltop Entrance was laid to the furthest downstream dry point. As the wetsuit cavers readied for a 6:25 p.m. push, voice contact was made with at least one victim in the cave. Everyone was related.
On the first attempt the push crew ran out of rope short of the Theater Room. When rope was relayed downstream to them, the wetsuiters moved on, through a foot of air space into the Theater Room where the trapped cavers were indeed waiting. They were all tired but otherwise not injured or disabled. They had panicked when they found the water to be up but calmed down when one of the group fell into neck-deep water.
Now each was fitted with a life-vest, and alternating rescuer-victim, they hauled themselves back up the fixed lines. All three were out under their own power by 8 p.m. They had been in the cave about 31 hours.
It is not clear how the weather looked when the group entered the cave. Dasher states that the water rose fast. Perhaps the rain was from an unexpected thunder storm. Most entrapments could probably be avoided if the weather forecasts were religiously heeded, however. Apparently it is lucky they were not in the lower levels of the cave. The group showed good sense in waiting for the flood to subside.
Three cavers were stranded inside Laurel Creek Cave due to unexpected flooding at the entrance, leading to a successful rescue operation after 31 hours.