SOS message from iPhone failed to deliver when woman and her dog got swept away in flash floods – a few minutes later, the unexpected happened
Natural disasters come without warning and can put anyone in a life-threatening situation. The SOS emergency feature available in iPhones is designed to fight and seek assistance in such unprecedented situations. A similar incident occurred in Utah when a woman was trapped in the Mary Jane Canyon flash flood with her dog, according to a report from the Grand County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team on August 28, 2023. While trying to reach safety, she wisely activated the emergency SOS feature on her iPhone, but received a notification that the message had failed to deliver, reported Mashable. She then continued her efforts to get to a safe place, unaware of what would happen next.
The 38-year-old woman was hiking with her dog when a flash flood hit. She tried to get to higher ground, but the rising water reached her and swept her and her dog into the canyon. She was swept approximately 150-200 feet downstream and lost her shoes in the process. Once things were somewhat under control, she tried using the emergency SOS feature on her iPhone 14, but received a notification saying, “Message Send Failure.” Since the message didn't go through at the time, she had to fend for herself and her dog and began walking barefoot. Fortunately, while she was helping herself, her message reached the search and rescue teams at 7:22 p.m.
They launched a search and found her via a helicopter about two hours later. "The standard text message with the service simply stated that the person with the device needed assistance. It contained geographic coordinates, but no information about the nature of the emergency,” Grand County Sheriff's Search and Rescue mentioned in their post. She was found two miles from her original GPS location. The rescue operation took some time because the terrain was not suitable for a helicopter landing, forcing ground crews to intervene until they found her and her dog at 9:25 p.m. She was completely covered in mud, but safe and uninjured. However, the rescue operation might not have gone as smoothly if she hadn’t activated the SOS alert feature on her iPhone just in time and had not reacted to the mishap calmly.
This feature is available on Apple iPhone 14, 15, 16, and 17, as mentioned by Apple. At the time, Apple had partnered with Globalstar to enable satellite connectivity, allowing users to reach local emergency dispatch centers even without cellular or Wi-Fi coverage, as noted in another Mashable report. This feature was specifically designed for situations like this, where people may get stuck or injured in the wilderness.
Though the SOS feature played a crucial role in saving the woman, her brave and astute response to help herself and her dog after the message failed is worth applause. It goes to show the importance of remaining calm and doing everything possible to help oneself before assistance can arrive. In this case, the woman took the right steps by first requesting help and then getting herself to a safe space without panicking to delay the consequences as much as possible.
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