Dad, 3 kids found alive after three days in snowy woods

PARADISE, Calif. -- A father and three children who vanished on a Christmas tree-cutting trip in the Northern California mountains were found alive Wednesday after huddling in a culvert for warmth during three days of heavy snow.

A California Highway Patrol helicopter crew spotted Frederick Dominguez waving his arms atop a small bridge and landed nearby, sinking into 2 feet of snow, flight officer David White said. White said the crew found the family on their last pass over the area as snow from another storm, even bigger than the first, started to fall heavily.

Hours later, after he had been checked at a hospital, Dominguez described three harrowing nights in the wild as he tried to keep his children from panicking and succumbing to the numbing cold.

"You just want your kids to be safe and you're just praying, 'God, keep my kids alive,' " he told reporters gathered at Feather River Hospital in Paradise.

The rescue came as their family and friends were starting to lose hope, with another storm moving in and beginning to dump yet more snow in the foothill region about 100 miles north of Sacramento.

"Our hearts are all full right now," said Cory Stahl, who closed his pest control business so his employees could help look for Dominguez, an employee. "It's a very merry Christmas now."

The helicopter ferried the family to safety in two trips; Alexis, 15, and Joshua, 12, were taken out of the woods first. Dominguez, 38, smiled at cheering family and friends as he and 18-year-old Christopher emerged from the helicopter a short time later.

"I'm just amazed how well they did," Lisa Sams said after seeing her children and ex-husband for the first time since they were rescued. "It was like butterflies in my stomach, like if you were going to go on a very first date."

Dominguez, seated in a wheelchair at the hospital and wiggling his toes beneath thick socks, described days and nights split between despair and a hunger to survive.

He admitted he was terrified they would not make it out, but remained strong for his children as he turned to his faith. His youngest, Joshua, needed constant reassurance.

"I said, 'Son, I would tell you what I bought you for Christmas if I thought we weren't going to make it,' " Dominguez recalled. "My kids were relying on me, and I'm scared, but you can't tell them you're scared."

As they searched for a tree Sunday, they got turned around in the woods and ended up on the wrong road. The first night, they used their saw to cut tree branches and create a crude shelter. They awoke to 8 inches of snow and began trying to get back to their truck.

"I just remember walking and walking and thinking, 'We're not going to make it.' I remember being really, really scared," Alexis told CNN Wednesday night.

They eventually wandered into a culvert that allowed a creek to flow beneath a dirt road and stayed there until their rescue Wednesday. It was a miserable place -- dark, cramped, wet and cold -- but provided just enough shelter.

One night it rained, sending snow melt shooting through the tunnel. At one point, Alexis lost a shoe and slept a night with her foot exposed. Dominguez ripped his sweat shirt and tied the shreds around her foot, rubbing it to keep it warm.

Outside, they used twigs and branches to create an SOS -- "Help."

The family used humor and songs from their church to lift their spirits.

The break in the search came mid-afternoon Wednesday when a state highway patrol helicopter spotted the father atop a small bridge and landed nearby, sinking into 2 feet of snow. Dominguez said he ran across rocks and snow in his bare feet when Alexis heard the helicopter.

Christopher told CNN they were all trying to keep their frozen feet warm when they heard the helicopter and told their father, shouting, "Helicopter, helicopter."

"We were all just happy, happy to be rescued," Christopher said.

All four were checked for dehydration, hypothermia and frostbite, treating physician Kurt Bower said. They were released later in the day.

"I'm surprised how good they are," he said. "There's a miracle from God in there somewhere."

The family's ordeal took place about 100 miles north of Sacramento. Dominguez's pickup truck was found Monday night parked along a mountain road some 25 miles northeast of Chico, near the hamlet of Inskip.

The skies were clear when the family entered the woods Sunday and for hours afterward. The first storm wave didn't hit until Monday.

Because Dominguez had custody of his children at the time, his ex-wife did not know they were missing until she discovered that her youngest child failed to show up at school Monday. Authorities were alerted at 8 p.m. Monday and immediately began a search.

They quickly found the pickup -- a bare spot beneath it, indicating little snow when the trek began -- but at least 8 inches of snow was covering the ground, hurting efforts to track them.

More than a foot of snow had fallen in the mountains since the family disappeared, covering any tracks leading from the truck. The heavily wooded and canyon-crossed area contained drifts as high as 7 feet.

The rescue teams had been racing time and the elements to find the four, as a powerful storm carrying even more snow was headed into the region. The search effort expanded with a break in the weather Wednesday morning, and the helicopter was able to join the search around midday after low-lying clouds lifted.

Dominguez moved to the foothill town of Paradise about a year ago from Los Angeles to be closer to his children, who live with Sams. His co-workers said he is devoted to his children and takes them to church every Sunday, as he did this past weekend before heading out to look for a tree.

Dominguez joked Wednesday night that next Christmas, he'll buy a plastic tree.