MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — An old power station sits on the bank of the Oconee River.
It’s also the place where friends of a 20-year-old man say he was last seen.
"Their friend, the 20-year-old male, said he needed something from the truck so he gave his friend his cell phone and the keys to his truck and he stayed here at this structure. So, they went to the truck and when they came back he was nowhere to be found," Battalion Chief David Ussery said.
After the man was missing for an hour, the friends called 911 around 10 p.m. on Thursday, kicking off a search with nine agencies.
"It was evident that it was going to be a struggle because we really didn't have any solid information on where he was and where he might've fell in," Ussery said.
With heat seeking drones in the sky, boats hit the water and night time made the mission even harder.
"You can’t see the underwater hazards, it's dark all around you so you're having trouble navigating the banks of the river, just navigating the rapids alone created enough of a difficulty and it just multiplied it at night time," Sergeant Kyle Rice said.
The search attracted others in the community to come and help.
Just before helicopters arrived, the search ended with the man reappearing on his own.
"We actually found him down close to where we were searching and he was down on the edge of the river coming out of the riverbanks," Ussery said.
Baldwin officials told 13WMAZ the man was hiding during the search out of a fear of being abducted.
Not every story has a happy ending.
That's why the Baldwin Emergency Management Director wants people to stay safe on and around the river.
"When Georgia power starts generating at Lake Sinclair Dam you'll hear sirens go off and people need to be aware that when sirens go off, the water's coming up and it’s about to get swift," Wayne Johnson said.