Correction appended

An elderly man keeping guard over logging equipment was stranded for three days atop a forested hill under heavy snow in southern Oregon until he was rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter Wednesday.

Lloyd Cline, 73, had some food and water but had run out of propane and gas to heat his trailer on Monday, according to Scott Lucas, state search and rescue coordinator with the Oregon Office of Emergency Management. Cline had been working security at the logging site near Drain in Douglas County when he became snowed in at about 1,400 feet elevation, Lucas said. Cline was stranded 15 miles from the main road in 3 to 4 feet of snow.

“He couldn’t drive his truck out of there, and there were so many trees down in the area, so there was nowhere to go even if he could drive,” Lucas said. “He was about done in.”

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter flew from the Oregon coast to retrieve Cline. A crew member was lowered down to the ground as the chopper hovered overhead and wrapped Cline in blankets. The pair were then hoisted up into the aircraft, Lucas said.

They then flew to PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend in Eugene, where Cline is being treated for hypothermia, Lucas said. He is expected to survive.

The rescue coincides with a heavy snowfall in the area that has caused widespread power outages, closed a state highway for non-emergency vehicles, and left nearly 200 people stranded aboard an Amtrak train for more than 36 hours. Thousands of people in the Eugene area could be without power for a week or more due to downed power lines, the local power company said Tuesday.

Emergency dispatchers received reports about Cline being stuck sometime Monday morning, Lucas said. Authorities were able to determine where Cline was via his cellphone signal.

According to Lucas, weather conditions made a ground rescue the most viable option at first. But some equipment, such as a county snow-cat vehicle, had to be diverted elsewhere. Search and rescue crews attempted to climb up the mountain and cut through downed trees but didn’t have chainsaws that were big enough, Lucas said.

Loggers arrived Tuesday to help clear the trees. They made it about 6 1/2 miles up the mountain but had to turn back because more snow arrived, making it difficult to see and causing more trees to fall, Lucas said.

Crews that returned Wednesday morning were forced start over from the bottom again. They made it about 1 mile up when they encountered a large tree blocking their path.

“We were running out of time,” Lucas said. “He kept in communication with us by texting and at some point he was saying that he’s breathing hard, not feeling well and it was clear that he was showing symptoms of hypothermia and just couldn’t stay warm.”

Air rescue became the best option, particularly because the weather had cleared up, Lucas said.

A Coast Guard crew flew from North Bend on the Oregon coast around 1:20 p.m., reached Cline about an hour later and landed at the hospital at 3:05 p.m., officials said.

Lucas said the logging company that hired Cline plans to cover his medical expenses.

*Note*: A previous version of this article misstated the area where Drain is located.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 |@EvertonBailey

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.