A woman who was stranded for more than eight hours after driving her vehicle into a swollen creek was found unharmed and rescued Saturday morning.

Emergency crews found the woman, identified as Sandra Rupp, Warrenton, standing on a creek bank next to her half-submerged vehicle around 9 a.m. When Rupp attempted to drive her Honda CRV sport utility vehicle through a low-water gravel crossing on Lost Creek Road, the current pushed the vehicle three-quarters of a mile down the creek.

The vehicle finally came to a stop once it became wedged against the bank. However, that was just the beginning of Rupp’s ordeal. Perched on the top of her vehicle throughout the night, she braved the elements wearing only pants, a shirt and sandals.

Once rescued, Rupp was transported by ambulance to St. Joseph Hospital West in Lake Saint Louis to be treated for hypothermia, but was released later that afternoon. Three days after her scary ordeal, Rupp’s only reminders of her night spent in the wild were sore muscles, a lost voice and a wide array of mosquito and chigger bites.

“I want the rescuers to know how appreciative Gale (her husband) and I are,” she said. “I was so glad when they came. They were so kind and caring. They were just as happy to see me as I was to see them.”

Rupp had been visiting a friend at a residence located on Lost Creek Road when she called her husband to let him know she was heading home around 11 p.m. Friday. She noticed that water covered the first of several creek beds she anticipated crossing, but didn’t realize the danger she was putting herself in until it was too late. By then, water was pouring over the top of the hood and pushing her vehicle downstream.

“I kept praying, ‘Father, please stop this car,’ ” Rupp said. “I must have said it 10 times.”

The creek water topped the window locks in her vehicle seat while she was sitting inside trying to determine her next move. She was not sure how she was going to get out of the vehicle when, in a surreal moment, the dome light flickered. Realizing that meant the back rear window was ajar, Rupp scrambled to the back and climbed out.

The ordeal left her stranded in the rain throughout much of the early morning hours as a thunderstorm traveled through the area. The only time Rupp could see anything was when lightning bolts lit the sky. Rupp had a cell phone but didn’t have any network coverage and eventually threw it in the water.

Rupp then leaned on her faith. 

“I am a born again Christian and this is my testimony,” she said. “It was my night of miracles.”

Warrenton Fire Chief Owenby added: “A lot of bad things could have happened.”

Rupp’s husband woke up at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday and realized she wasn’t home and notified the sheriff’s department. Owenby said his department received a call at 6:30 a.m. to begin searching for the woman in the Lost Creek area. Due to the creek’s depth and fast-moving current, Owenby said, firefighters walked the creek bank in an attempt to locate the woman. Once Rupp was found, crews unloaded a boat to pick her up.

“Where she was at, the water had been 3 to 4 feet higher compared to the time we got there,” Owenby said. “It was pretty deep and moving fast.”

Owenby stressed that motorists should use caution when approaching a roadway that is covered by water. He noted that it only takes 2 inches of moving water to knock a person off their feet.

“Anytime you’re dealing with water crossings, it’s extremely dangerous,” he said. “You never know how deep it is. She is extremely lucky she wasn’t injured. It doesn’t take much at all to move a vehicle.”