Family of three lost in Oregon forest found alive

Portland: A family of three huddled on the edge of an old-growth Oregon forest for six days, lost and cold, unable to signal search helicopters flying low and slow overhead.

Without food, water or even warm clothing, Belinda and Daniel Conne, along with their 25-year-old son, Michael, survived by drinking water from streams and taking shelter in a hollowed-out tree.

On Saturday, they managed to crawl to a clearing, where a search helicopter spotted them several kilometres outside the community of Gold Beach, roughly 530km south-southwest of Portland. "It's a miracle, really," Curry County Sheriff John Bishop said. The three were airlifted to a hospital.

Bishop said the Connes told him they could see search helicopters just a few hundred feet above them while they were lost but had nothing to signal them with through the thick forest vegetation.

The family eventually was spotted by a search helicopter.

The family was then transported by a US Coast Guard helicopter to Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach.

The ordeal began last Sunday when the three went out looking for hedgehog mushrooms, an orange-topped fungus prized by mushroom hunters for its sweet and nutty flavour. The three had been living in a trailer at a campsite after leaving Oklahoma for Oregon last summer.

Bishop said Daniel Conne suffered a back injury, Belinda Conne had hypothermia, and their son had a sprained foot and minor frostbite. All three were also dehydrated and hungry.