A missing 83-year-old woman from Westmoreland County who wandered away from her home was found Thursday morning alive in the woods about a mile away from where she lives.

Clara Waters went missing from her home along Loyalhanna Dam Road in Loyalhanna Township around 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Crews from the Pennsylvania State Police, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Loyalhanna park rangers and the Saltsburg Volunteer Fire Department and its water rescue team searched well into the night and morning, using boats, dogs and drones.

Around 9 a.m. on Thursday, the blue sweater Waters was wearing was spotted in the woods by a team out on the water on Loyalhanna Lake.

"She was about 20 yards off the shore on the bank of the lake and she was conscious and alert," said Saltsburg Volunteer Fire Department chief Justin Johnson. "She was conscious and alert, obviously she spent the night in the elements, but for all things considered, it was the absolute best case scenario."

Waters suffers from dementia and wandered less than a mile from her house, straight into a ravine near the lake. She may have been suffering from some hypothermia, but she is currently recovering at a local hospital and is expected to be OK.

Police say Project Lifesaver could have helped 

Trooper Steve Limani of the Pennsylvania State Police praised the search and rescue efforts by all the first responders. He also said that Waters and other people who have dementia are perfect candidates for Project Lifesaver, a new and free service in the county that pairs people with a GPS tracker to help officials find them quickly should they go missing.

"It is simply a bracelet that looks like a watch," Limani said. "The battery life is roughly 60 days, so it is not something you have to worry about on a constant everyday basis, but it is something I think that, in this particular case, could have been definitely a great instrument for us to use to try and solve and find Clara in a faster manner."

State police want to stress that if you have a family member with dementia or a nonverbal child at home, Project Lifesaver would really help in a situation like this. For more information on the Project Lifesaver program in Westmoreland County, click here.