Grants Pass, Ore. — A Grants Pass native is making headlines across the country after surviving 18 hours floating helplessly over the Fourth of July in the Gulf of Mexico.
Grants Pass High School graduate Dora Steed got separated from her husband when their boat drifted away while snorkeling in shark infested waters.
The 49-year-old’s father, Grants Pass man Earl Hurst, said those were some of the longest hours of his life.
“Until I heard her voice, I couldn’t believe she was actually alive,” Hurst said.
He said he had just returned home from dinner on July third when he got a call that his daughter was missing in Homassassa Bay, about 60 miles north of Tampa, Fla.
He immediately took action. He called the sheriff’s department and Coast Guard. They assured him that they were searching.
“The Coast Guard told me her chances of survival are none,” said Hurst.
But Hurst held out hope, not knowing his daughter was literally hanging on for her life.
“In Florida they use PVC pipes to indicate shallow water. She saw a piling and swam over to the piling and wrapped her arms and legs around it and held on,” Hurst said.
But the tide was high, and a storm forced crews to call of the search for the night. But 18 hours later Hurst’s nightmare came to an end when a commercial captain spotted Steed waving frantically for help.
“It’s a miracle. Praise God,” Hurst said.
Steed is home from the hospital. Her blood pressure is still being monitored because it dropped so low after her struggle at sea.
Hurst said he’s planning a trip down to Florida to be with her.
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