"...didn't leave any kind of plan with friends.."

Yup. And thanks to that error, the searchers stopped short of searching where she actually way. "..."but we never considered that she traveled so far"..."

It would be interesting to know just how far she was from her vehicle, and how far the searchers searched from the car. But, other than that error, it looks like she did most things pretty well. Don't know what the weather forecast was for that area before she departed, or if she checked the weather anyway, but in that part of the country storms a long way from your location can send a lot of water your way hours later. Glad she survived to tell about it...