Finally out of the woods ... after spending night in a 20-foot sinkhole



GRAYS HARBOR COUNTY, Wash. -- Rescuers on Tuesday found and helped a timber worker out of a 20-foot sinkhole, which he had fallen into the day before, authorities said.

The man was cold but in good health, said Grays Harbor Fire District 2 Capt. Larry Willis.

Willis said the man was flagging and marking obstacles along logging roads when he stepped on a "small indentation" and broke through the sinkhole around lunchtime Monday. He had his cellphone on him, Willis said, but reception wasn't good at all.

People became concerned when he missed a morning meeting Tuesday and they found his truck out in the woods. They started to check the side roads and found him down in the sinkhole.

After a ladder was lowered down, the man climbed up and out of the sinkhole, with a little help, and then drove himself out of the woods.

The Olympia Fire Department, which said the Thurston County Special Operations Rescue Team helped in the rescue, tweeted this photo: