Three men who got lost in the woods when attempting to walk out after their boat broke down on the Neches River on the evening of September 26th were rescued after a nighttime search. The three local residents – Junious Couch, Ronnie Gore and Dennis Hall – attempted to walk out through the dense woods instead of waiting by their boat for rescue. Hall, who only has very limited peripheral vision and is legally blind, became separated from the other two men. Ranger Mike Hughes was assisted in the search by Texas Parks & Wildlife game warden Bill Zappe. They were able to make contact with Hall, who had his cell phone with him, around 11 p.m. In a later conversation, an anxious Hall told them that he had fallen down an embankment and was clinging to a tree. After searching for him for five hours, Hughes and Zappe finally heard him shouting for help, but it still took them another 40 minutes to travel the quarter mile by boat to his location due to thick fog and numerous snags in the river. They found Hall clinging to a downed tree hanging over a swift and deep part of the river. Because of his blindness, Hall was unaware that the tree he was clinging to actually hung out over the river. The rescuers skillfully maneuvered their boat under the tree and carefully brought Hall aboard around 4:30 a.m. Shortly after rescuing Hall, the other two lost men were also rescued. Without the timely intervention of Hughes and Zappe, it seems likely that Hall would have eventually fallen into the river and drowned. None of the victims required medical treatment.
