SIOUX FALLS, S.D.-While one cellular call was causing major political turmoil in the nation’s capital, another helped saved a life thousands of miles away in a dramatic rescue that-like the brouhaha in Washington-put wireless technology in the national spotlight.
Just more than a week ago, a pilot flying overhead helped rescuers find a woman who was stuck in a pickup truck for nearly 40 hours during a blizzard in South Dakota with wind-chill temperatures as low as 70 degrees below zero. Karen Nelson talked to the pilot on her cellular phone, guiding him to her location by telling him when she could hear his plane.
Rescuers on the ground finally reached the 51-year-old woman on Friday, Jan. 10.
“She’s in good spirits and is warm, but is tired and cold,” said Max Tite, general manager of the Watertown cellular phone company that helped locate her. Nelson subscribes to a wireline cellular system, but her signal was switched to the nonwireline system operated by Tite because the company had antennas in the area.
Nelson slid off the road into a ditch Thursday morning, Jan. 9, near Webster, in the northwest corner of the state.
After she was located, rescuers arrived by snowmobile, wrapped her in a heavy blanket, put her on a sled and took her to an ambulance. A nurse at the hospital said Nelson was in stable condition.
The storm had shut down almost the entire interstate highway system in South Dakota. Authorities had recommended against traveling.
Nelson had called police with her cellular phone after she got stuck while trying to get home to Webster from her job in Roslyn, 12 miles away.
Police were in contact with Nelson every half hour Thursday night. But she was told to restrict her phone use Friday to preserve the battery.
While the rescue was in progress, revelations about a taped cellular phone call among House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other GOP*House leaders involving an ethics investigation of Gingrich caused a political firestorm in the East.
Associated Press Writer Paul Sloca reported this story from Sioux Falls. RCR Washington Bureau Chief Jeffrey Silva contributed to the report.
