After harrowing cave escape, operator considers safety
Rain nearly traps students mile deep in Kentucky grotto
HORSE CAVE, Ky. — One day after 19 people trudged through neck-deep water in a harrowing escape from a flooded Kentucky cave, the operator of the spelunking attraction says he is analyzing the incident for any possible safety lessons.
David Foster, executive director of the American Cave Museum, said he had no way to reach the group of students a mile deep in the caverns Thursday afternoon to warn them that water from an unexpectedly heavy storm was threatening to block their only exit.
Radio frequencies don’t reach that deep into the caverns; there are no phone lines to check in. So Mr. Foster sped home to get his boots, called 911 and ran into the flooded Hidden River Cave to find them. If he didn’t act fast, he thought, the group of guides and college students there on a fivehour tour could be trapped for days until the water receded.
They all made it out safely after navigating deep water, rushing currents and mud so thick it sucked off a police chief’s boot.
Now Mr. Foster said he’s turning his attention to any safety updates that might help prevent another close call.
Four years ago, another spring flood forced Mr. Foster to undertake a similar rescue mission. In March 2012, eight students and a teacher on a field trip were deep in the cave when a thunderstorm dumped rain on the area, said Bonny Armstrong, editor of the journal American Caving Accidents, a publication of the National Speleological Society. That group, like the cavers rescued Thursday, had no idea their only exit was being plugged by water.
Mr. Foster said they learned from that experience and built a ladder and cable system in the canyon as an escape route. They used it Thursday, and Mr. Foster said it allowed them to traverse the most treacherous part of the cave without incident.
The groups entered the cave around 10 a.m. Thursday, and when the rain started hours later there was no way to warn them to hurry out.
Mr. Foster is now looking into installing a phone system in the cave, which gets about 15,000 visitors every year and is operated by the nonprofit American Cave Conservation Association.
Mr. Foster’s cave is about 10 miles from Kentucky’s most famous caverns, Mammoth Cave National Park. Park spokeswoman Vickie Carson said that cave has a hard-wired telephone system. Phones are placed at regular intervals so guides are never far from one.
“We can make plans for safety as best we can,” Ms. Carson said. “But it’s not all under human control. It’s a wild place. That’s what gives it the sense of adventure.”