Va. Man Trapped 3 Days In Outhouse

Friday, August 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

IVANHOE, Va. (AP) â€” For three days, Coolidge Winesett sat mired in the five-foot hole of a partially collapsed outhouse, alternately yelling for help and trying to cope with the stench.

``I tell you what, it was hard to get one breath down there,'' Winesett, 75, said Wednesday, a day after being rescued by a mail carrier who noticed that Winesett's deliveries were still in the box and went looking for him.

Jimmy Jackson, the mail carrier, found no sign of Winesett at his house or car. But Jackson spotted Winesett's crutch propped beside the outhouse.

``The closer I got, I heard a faint sound like somebody trying to holler,'' Jackson said.

Winesett, who is partially paralyzed from a stroke and lives alone, fell Saturday when the outhouse floor and part of a wall gave way.

``Down it went and took me with it,'' he said. ``I thought it was an earthquake. Then I realized where I was at. ... I done a lot of hollering, but nobody couldn't hear me.''

The collapsed floor save Winesett from being dunked in the deepest sludge, but he suffered splinter scratches. He was hospitalized for dehydration and infection from the scratches.