One by one, area firefighters and Cherokee County sheriff's deputies emerged from the thick woods along Little Hope Road on Monday afternoon, most covered with leaves, pollen or the occasional cobweb, many of them bleeding from cuts and scrapes, and all of them drenched in sweat.

But after a quick recharge with a bottle of water or pack of crackers, they each headed back into the woods because their job was not yet done.

Approximately five hours after an intense search began for a missing elderly woman, good news crackled over the radio. The woman was found and she was alive, though officials would later say she was suffering from dehydration and the same types of scrapes and bruises that the searchers suffered while walking through the thick and often sharp-edged vegetation.

The incident on Little Hope Road began unfolding Monday afternoon when an 85-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer's was reported missing by her family. She had last been seen on Saturday at about 9 a.m., but investigators and emergency responders had little else to go on.

"We still don't really know what time she went missing," said Rick Peterson, director of Emergency Prepardness for Cherokee County.

With little information to go on, searchers turned their attention to the thick woods around the woman's home. Dozens of volunteer firefighters from numerous area departments responded and Det. Tim Clark of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office oversaw the effort as search parties were assigned very specific areas to comb.

Organizers used topographical maps to plot out their search efforts so no single area within the zone would be overlooked.

The initial search area covered about one square mile around the woman's residence. She was found about a half-mile from her home, said Chief Deputy Joel Hill of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.

"She was found in reasonably good shape," Hill said.

Firefighters from the Blacksburg, CKC, Buffalo, Corinth and Antioch fire departments participated in the effort along with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office and its bloodhound tracking team.