ORANGE COUNTY, Fla — Two Orange County men on a fishing trip found themselves stranded in a swampy area, surrounded by alligators and poisonous snakes.
Edward Grismondi and Michael Keeler's walked about two miles back on a trail in East Orange County to fish in the Little Econ River on Wednesday.
But their day of fishing quickly turned into a life-threatening event.
The men got lost because heavy rains from Tropical Storm Debby washed away the trail, and they were stuck in waist-deep water.
"The water just started rising," said Michael Keeler. "Within an hour of being there, we were surrounded by water."
"I'm like, 'We got to start walking out of here,' so when we started walking out we started getting deeper and deeper and I started to panic," said Grismondi.
The men said the water was filled with moccasins and curious gators as big as 9 feet long.
"They started to pop their heads up, hitting their tails real hard in the water," said Grismondi.
"The ones we couldn't see kept swimming up behind us, weren't making any noise, that was freaking me out," said Keeler.
"That's when I said we're calling the police," said Grismondi.
Rescue workers used a helicopter to try and find the men, but the trees were so thick, they couldn't be spotted.
So with a nearly empty lighter and some wet leaves, the two started a smoke signal so rescue workers in the air could see them.
"We were able to successfully get the two individuals out of the wooded area and back to safe ground," said Mark Smothers, of Orange County Fire Rescue.
The men both escaped the waters with scratches and about 100 or so mosquito bites.