No injured cavers recorded.
At 1:30 p.m. on September 18, 1983, a group of four cavers entered Lamon's Cave, in Alabama. They had little wild cave experience-one had been in Lamon's Cave two years previously. They took an inflatable raft to use in exiting the Spring Entrance. They had hard hats but lights consisted mainly of a flashlight each. One girl had a bad knee which quickly got worse, such that she had to be supported on either side in order to continue. They got as far as the blowing falls, got wet to the waist and became cold and disoriented. They arrived at the Spring Entrance passage but didn't recognize it.
After six hours, companions on the surface went to local cavers and got a small search team. At 10:15 p.m. these rescuers encountered the lost cavers just past the blowing falls. The victims were given extra clothes and were led out by 11:55 p.m. The girl with the bad knee had not warmed up on the way out and so was treated for hypothermia.
The victims were poorly equipped and obviously suffered from mild hypothermia and lack of experience-simply observing stream flow direction would reportedly have oriented them to their objective. Even so, they would have failed-a beaver dam had sumped the Spring Entrance subsequent to the leader's earlier visit to the cave.
A poorly equipped group with little experience got lost, wet, and cold, resulting in a small search rescue and treatment for hypothermia.