Grants Pass, Ore. – Snowbound in a car with their two daughters – one a 4-year-old, the other an infant – Kati and James Kim tried to keep warm by running the engine at night.
When the gas ran out, they burned the tires, authorities said.
When the food ran out, James Kim ate wild berries, uncertain whether they were safe. Finally, when no help arrived, authorities said, he set out on foot in a remote area of southern Oregon, wearing only tennis shoes, pants, a sweater and a jacket.
Then Kati Kim waited, nursing her children to keep them alive.
On Monday, more than a week after the San Francisco family failed to show up at a lodge where they had reservations over the Thanksgiving weekend, Kati Kim flagged down a helicopter search crew with an umbrella and was rescued along with her daughters, Penelope and 7-month-old Sabine. James Kim still hadn’t been found.
Kati Kim, 30, and the girls were in good condition after being airlifted to Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass, where the baby was admitted and the other two planned to stay overnight, a hospital official said.
“Mom arrived in an ambulance smiling and waving,” the official said.
Rescuers continued to look for 35-year-old James Kim.
Helicopters with thermal-imaging technology were added to the search Monday night, and searchers were following the father’s footprints over a ridge and down into a drainage.
Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said the family turned off a side road and got stuck in the snow. The family had been driving along rural roads that are often used as shortcuts to Gold Beach on the southern Oregon coast. The roads are typically used by whitewater rafters in the summer but often are treacherous and impassable during the winter.
