‘Down like in an elevator': Neighbor, first responders rescue Virginia man who fell through the ice

A man who fell through the ice while walking on a partly frozen lake near his Virginia home Wednesday is grateful for two things: an alert neighbor and first responders.

Almost every year since he was a boy, Howard Cahill has picked a time during winter to walk across Lake Saint Clair in the Winchester area. With the recent cold, he set out Wednesday. He said partway across, he saw a watery airhole and turned around.

“I hear it cracking, and then I just go down like in an elevator, real slow, he said.

He sunk to his chest but kept his head above the ice. He tried to use his walking stick to climb out, but the ice kept breaking.

“I just started yelling, ‘Help! Help!’” he said.

Lake Saint Clair is in a remote area where many homes are unoccupied during winter, but somehow at that very moment, neighbor and lifelong friend Kathi Daylor was seated at her laptop looking out the window.

“I see the darn fool walking on the ice,” she said. “I did. And I said, ‘Oh my God,’ and I turned away, and just out of the corner of my eye, I saw him go kerplunk and a splash.”

After calling 911, she ran outside still in pajamas and slippers, grabbed a kayak and took it down to the water. At the edge of the lake, she focused on keeping Cahill conscious.

“Just as I thought he was going to hypothermia, I saw up on top of the hill, I saw the red lights,” Daylor said. “I kept screaming, ‘They’re here, Howard! They’re hear. They are going to save you.’ Because I wasn’t going in.”

Frederick County (VA) Deputy Brian Thomas arrived first, followed by Frederick County and Gainesboro fire and rescue crews. They decided the kayak was their best bet.

They tied a rope to it, and Thomas headed out on the ice, using his arms as oars.

“I just knew that he needed to get out of there as soon as possible,” Thomas said.

Once he reached Cahill, fire crews pulled on the rope to get the men to shore.

Inside the ambulance, medics gave Cahill an IV of warm saline. At the hospital, his body temperature had dropped to 92 degrees. He was released after warming up for about two hours.

“I’m particularly grateful to that sheriff’s deputy, Deputy Thomas, just because he got here so quickly,” Cahill said.

Cahill said he never really felt cold until he got in the ambulance.

“What we’re really happy about is that we could get there that fast and that the neighbor was able to see him and call and that he’s doing good,” Gainesboro Volunteer Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Don Jackson said.

Cahill hasn’t ruled out another attempt to cross the lake to keep his tradition alive.

“If I cross, it will be down at the other end where I can stand up,” he said.

His neighbors warn him not to do it.

“When the sun came up this morning, I thought, ‘Thank God he on this side of the ice,” Daylor said.