By Mark Price
The Charlotte Observer
CATOOSA COUNTY, Ga. 鈥擟alls for help along a north Georgia highway of a man stuck in a 24-inch drainpipe under the road, according to rescuers.
It鈥檚 suspected the 22-year-old may have been trapped for more than a day before he was rescued around midnight on Tuesday, April 16, Catoosa County officials said in a news release.
Firefighters spent nine hours trying to pry him from the 鈥減artially clogged storm drain鈥� in Fort Oglethorpe, about a 105-mile drive northwest from Atlanta.
鈥淛ust before 3:00 p.m. Tuesday Catoosa County 911 received a call from a motorist reporting hearing a man calling for help inside a storm drain under Georgia Highway 2 near the intersection of Highway 27 ( Lafayette Road ),鈥� county officials said in the release.
鈥淐atoosa County firefighters determined the man was trapped inside a 24-inch drainpipe (that) was about 50% clogged with debris ... of a heavy, rocky, clay consistency.鈥�
Firefighters hand-chiseled ,鈥� which was then sucked from the pipe with a vacuum truck, officials said.
The man 鈥渨as conscious and communicating with firefighters鈥� during the rescue.
Investigators say his family reported him missing that morning.
鈥�(He) is believed to have been trapped since Monday when for unknown reasons he entered the storm drain several hundred feet away from where he became trapped,鈥� officials said.
鈥淗e was freed and taken by Puckett EMS to a hospital for evaluation and treatment.鈥�
Details of his injuries were not released.
鈥淭hanks to our firefighters putting their confined space rescue training to work and the assistance from several partnering agencies, this lengthy and technical rescue has a successful outcome,鈥� Catoosa County Fire Chief Daniel Walston said in the release.
鈥淚 am proud of how everyone involved worked together to save this young man鈥檚 life.鈥�
Catoosa County is along the Tennessee state line, just south of Chattanooga .
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