This happened about ten miles from where I live. When I was told the news earlier in the week I just felt in my heart that this little girl had drowned in the Kankakee river. Well she didn't. I wish I had went to the river and offered to help search for her. If circumstances like this ever occur again I know I will.
52 years old and I am still learning. Man, I am glad they found this little girl safe.
Don
http://daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=397396Posted Online: 2007-06-16
Hannah survives two nights in the wildernessFive-year-old Hannah Klamecki escaped the treacherous currents of the Kankakee River before wandering alone in the dense woods for nearly two days after her grandfather died while swimming with her.
She was naked and clutching a handful of berries Friday morning when she emerged from the woods and meandered into the camp headquarters of searchers who were looking for her.
"Do you believe in miracles? I do -- now," Kankakee County Coroner Bob Gessner said.
Authorities were stunned by the girl's appearance at approximately 10:30 a.m. at their command post at State Line Bridge on the north side of the river. snip
"I turned around and looked and here's a naked little girl walking," McCabe recalled. "She wasn't walking towards us. She was just kind of walking towards the river. I went over there and asked her if she was OK. She said something about her grandpa went swimming. I asked her what her name was and she said, 'Hannah.'"
Just hours earlier searchers had discovered the drowned body of her grandfather, 62-year-old David Klamecki of rural Momence, a few feet below the water's surface very near where his abandoned boat was found in Whirlpool Bend about 1 1/2 river miles west of the state line.