Three cave explorers became trapped in an underground cave with rising water levels. According to PEOPLE, the explorers from England were rescued after 30 hours, but Storm Amy made it a dangerous rescue.
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Rescue Team Saves 3 Cavers From Being Trapped In Cave With Rising Water Levels
At 9 PM on Thursday, October 2, the North Yorkshire Police were notified about three cave divers who hadn’t returned from Dow Cave, per a news release from the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association. The group was aiming to traverse through the cave after entering Dowber Gill Passage via Providence Pot.
UWFRA immediately requested assistance in this rescue, knowing the scale of the search. By 2:30 AM on Friday morning, they located the cavers “below the high-level traverses on the approach to the 60-foot Rift, near the Dow Cave end of the system.”
Due to the heavy rain in the area from Storm Amy, it made the search much more difficult. This also caused rising water levels in the cave system, making it a “complex and prolonged rescue operation.”
The deteriorating weather conditions made the easiest exit of the cave impassable. This forced the rescuers and cavers to retrace their steps back to Providence Pot. Although it was a more time-consuming route, it ended up saving them.
Meanwhile, on the surface, the rest of the crew endured “relentless rain and strong winds.” To maintain communications ground the underground teams, they had to continuously operate Cave Link. It’s a text-based messaging system that is able to transmit messages through solid rock.
The tired cavers were also able to escape due to the underground teams working in relays. They also constructed a temporary dam using a plastic sheet, managing to divert the floodwater away from the cave entrance.
By 3:30 PM on Friday, the first missing caver emerged. It took till 2:30 AM for the second caver to reach the surface, and then by 5:40 AM on Saturday, the third caver emerged.
The entire operation concluded at 7:45 AM on Saturday, making it a full 36-hour rescue operation. All of this was made possible by the hardworking rescue teams dedicated to saving these cavers.