It's so easy for your mind to immediately think of the worst possible scenarios in crisis situations, especially when they involve kids. Those are the ones that make headlines the most often, right? And, sadly, they're memorable, too. Tragedies have a way of sticking in your mind.
Well, we're happy to say that this is one of those crises involving kids that actually turned out well.
And they can also thank themselves for getting 5-year-old Caroline and 8-year-old Leia some survival training — it really paid off.
The family notified the authorities by 6:00 that night. By Saturday morning, the Humboldt County sheriff's department had sent out an alert about the missing youngsters, saying that it was believed that the girls had wandered off into a wooded area.
The searchers included members of the U.S Coast Guard, canine units, and a Blackhawk helicopter, numbering 250 people from 14 agencies in all. And yet, despite all that, the search team wasn't able to locate them on Saturday, meaning the girls had to spend a second night out in the woods.
Searchers noticed some granola bar wrappers, which the girls' mother confirmed she had bought recently. "The wrappers showed us a direction from where they started to where the wrappers ended up at," Lt. Mike Fridley said at a press conference.
A local fire chief and a firefighter followed the bootprints and found the two girls huddled underneath a bush 44 hours after they disapperead. Fridley said that he had the honor of notifying the girls' mom to let her know they were safe. "She melted on the phone," he said.
"We're all witnessing a miracle," said Sheriff William Honsal. "This is rugged territory, this is extreme environment. They definitely have a survival story to tell." He also said that he believes the girls' survival training, which they learned through 4-H, "played a part."
They said that when they realized they were lost — about 1.4 miles from home — they decided to stay put and drink fresh water from Huckleberry leaves.
