A hunter fell into a frigid DeKalb County river Thursday afternoon but survived.
The 31-year-old Kingston man was out hunting with a friend in the Kishwaukee River State Fish and Wildlife Area, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago, according to the DeKalb County sheriff’s office.
At some point, the friend left, sheriff’s police said, and returned “hours later” and heard the man — who didn’t have a cellphone — yelling for help.
Police and fire crews from Kingston began searching for him along with Illinois Department of Conservation police about 7:30 p.m. They found the hunter “deep in the woods,” police said.
He had partially fallen in the river in the single-digit temperatures and managed to pull himself out but could not move, police said.
Crews carried him out of the woods at 10:30 p.m., and he was taken by helicopter from the Kirkland Fire Station to St. Anthony Hospital in Rockford, the sheriff’s office said. He was expected to survive.
