iPhone SOS feature provides timely intervention for woman and dog trapped in flash flood

A 38-year old woman and her dog were rescued from a natural calamity in a timely manner due to the emergency satellite SOS feature on iPhone that establishes contact with emergency services even in regions with sparse connectivity. The incident occurred near the Arches National Park in Utah.  The Grand County Sheriff's Search and Rescue’s Facebook page posted an update on the rescue operation. “After being swept down Mary Jane Canyon in a flash flood Thursday night, a 38 year-old woman was able to send an emergency satellite SOS using her iPhone. The Grand County Sheriff's Dispatch received the signal at 7:22 p.m. It contained geographic coordinates, but no information about the nature of the emergency. After finding no one near the reported coordinates, Classic flew down the canyon and spotted the woman and her dog about 2 miles downstream from the original coordinates. The helicopter was unable to land in the canyon, but the crew relayed her position to the SAR ground team. Rescuers reached the woman about 1.5 miles from the trailhead at 9:25 p.m. She was uninjured.

Eight minutes before her emergency SOS was received by the Sheriff’s office, she got a text message back on her phone stating “Emergency Services: Message Send Failure.” Believing that her SOS had not been transmitted, she began hiking down the canyon barefoot with her dog. Rescuers stated she was “covered in mud from head to toe” when they reached her,” the post stated.