Man Talks About His Family’s Ordeal in the Everglades

A family of five from Ohio that went missing after taking an airboat ride was found unharmed on Friday after spending a night in the Florida Everglades, authorities said.

The family of two adults and three children were identified as Scott Schreck, 44, Carie Schreck, 42, and their three children, 9-year-old Drew, 7-year-old Luke and Zane, who is between 3 and 4 years old.

"Took a wrong turn," Scott Schreck said after being rescued along with his wife and children. "Had a great fishing trip with the boys. Wife was having fun, came to the end of the one canal, took a right and couldn't get the boat turned around."

He said the family had plenty of food and water. He said the boat was his friend's.

"Oh yeah, we were worried," he said.

He said his children slept during the night and he made a covering over the airboat to keep the children dry from the rains, and he and his wife stood bent in the boat for about eight hours. He said that at about 3 a.m. he heard an airboat nearby going back and forth. That airboat was from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"This is the first time I have been out here," Schreck said. "Obviously as a novice on this body of water, probably not the thing to do."

Schreck also thanked authorities for the rescue. The family was found by a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue helicopter, and firefighters were hoisted to the ground to assess the situation, said FWC spokesman Jorge Pino.

Authorities were able to hear the family blowing horns and whistles and they Fire Rescue the coordinates to find them, he said.

"It looks like they got stuck in that dense vegetation in the Everglades," Pino said.

There were showers and thunderstorms in the area.

Fire Rescue said the family seemed to be physically OK, but they are being checked out.

The people went missing from the area near SW 8th Street and 177th Avenue. The search had been focused around the Evergaldes and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management area, which spans Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.