American family rescued from the wilderness thanks to smart emergency function on iPhone

A family lost in the woods in the US state of Oregon has managed to report their location to rescue services despite the lack of a telephone connection. They did this using an emergency function on their iPhone.

Clackamas County rescuers were called to action last week when they received reports of a missing family. The six family members, ages 52, 47, 32, 19, 11 and 9, were hiking in the woods near Mount Hood when they got into trouble. The family was lost and stuck in the snow. They could not call for help because there was no telephone connection.

Yet they managed to notify the emergency services through an emergency function of the iPhone of one of the stranded. Using the iPhone’s SOS emergency notification, they were able to send their location to the emergency services via satellite. They were informed around 7:30 PM and took action. But it took a long time before they could reach the family. The weather conditions were terrible and even a helicopter, an excavator and snowmobiles had to be used to reach the family.

The family members were wet, dehydrated and cold, but in good condition. According to the rescue services, they had walked almost 13 kilometers and climbed more than a thousand meters in altitude.

“This was a challenging rescue operation due to the amount of snow, fallen trees, steep terrain and the number of people that needed to be rescued. “We would like to remind anyone planning to visit the wilderness and higher elevations to be prepared for unexpected weather conditions with warm clothing, extra food and water,” the local sheriff said.