LINCOLN – Tricks played by rain and high winds on a man’s cries for help had searchers combing the Fish Hill area for about 2.5 hours Tuesday before finding him about 45 feet up a radio tower and suffering from hypothermia.

The man, whom authorities declined to identify, was admitted to Penobscot Valley Hospital, where he was being evaluated late Tuesday, police said.

Police were called at about 1 p.m. to a Mountain View Drive residence when a woman reported hearing cries for help, Sgt. Ron Dunham of the Maine Warden Service said.

“She only heard it sporadically,” Dunham said Tuesday.

The search quickly expanded to include about 15 police and firefighters who combed through thick woods surrounding JR and Evergreen drives and Hale and Pinkham streets in search of the man, Dunham said.

The search was perplexing, police Officer Richard York said.

“We heard somebody yelling for help, but as I was walking toward the sound, it sounded like he was getting farther and farther away,” York said.

Searchers finally found the man at about 3:30 p.m. atop the tower on Fish Hill near Lion Hill Road and Penobscot Valley High School – almost a mile away from the original search point. His climb put him as much as 800 feet above the area’s lowest lying land and probably accounted for searchers’ only occasionally hearing him, Dunham said.

“I think he was at such a height that the sound of his voice was being distorted by the wind and the rain. It carried more than it normally would have,” said Dunham, who supervises six game warden districts in northern Penobscot, northern Piscataquis and southern Aroostook counties.

Winds gusted at up to 20 mph Tuesday and probably blew harder at the man’s increased elevation.

Except for some boots, the man was not wearing heavy clothing and was soaked to the skin, Dunham said. He and York said they did not know for how long the man was on the tower – they suspected several hours – or exactly why he climbed it. Officials believed that the man was suffering from some kind of personal problem.