Nicaraguan Hurricane
Survivors Float For Days
at Sea
Nicaraguan villagers
spent four days in
shark-infested seas
clinging to driftwood or
smashed houses and boats
after Hurricane Felix
battered the Caribbean
coast, survivors said on
Saturday.
A Nicaraguan navy patrol
boat brought 40 men and
one woman ashore in the
port of Puerto Cabezas
after plucking them out
of the sea or whisking
them from battered,
isolated islands.
Photo
Some survivors, mostly
lobster divers who were
at sea when the deadly
Category 5 storm hit,
lived to tell their tale
by tying themselves to
floating wood as they
were battered by Felix's
260 Kmh winds and
mammoth waves.
"It was a plank, a plank
just like this one,"
said Onesio Perez,
pointing to the planks
of the dock, his arms
covered with rope burns
from strapping himself
to the wood, as he
stepped ashore at this
Caribbean port.
Another survivor, Kelvin
Ortega, said he spent
four days floating on a
piece of driftwood.
Hurricane Felix tore
into the border area of
Nicaragua and Honduras
this week and killed at
least 130 people. The
dead were mainly
Nicaraguan Miskito
Indians, including some
fishermen whose bodies
washed up in Honduras.
High winds and waves
battered coastal
villages and devastated
islets known as the
Miskito Keys.
Eduardo Sanders, captain
of the rescue boat, said
the survivors were
completely drained of
energy when they were
picked up.
"They practically
couldn't drink water and
couldn't eat," Sanders
said.
Most survivors managed
to walk off the patrol
boat unaided, although
two were carried off on
stretchers.
Villagers packed the
dock where the survivors
were unloaded waiting
for word of several
dozen local people
believed missing.
Photo
Many left crying and
wailing, resigned to
accepting that the
missing will unlikely be
found alive. Hundreds of
people did not evacuate
before the storm and had
only their flimsy wooden
shacks for shelter.
"I work with 10 people
and all were taken, none
found," said Samuel
Morales, 31, another
survivor. "Just me
floating on a piece of
wood."
Densela Frapo, her eyes
full of tears, had hoped
that her 49-year-old
mother, who was on the
Miskito Keys when the
storm hit, would be on
the rescue boat.
"We think she is dead
because she hasn't been
found yet," said her
cousin Norma Archibald.
Nicaragua's navy is
continuing the search
for survivors although
the chance of finding
more alive are dimming.
"The orders we have are
to go back to the zone
and continue the search
and rescue and bring
back the bodies we find,
living and drowned,"
Sanders said. "Probably
at this stage finding
survivors is going to be
very difficult, since we
are talking about five
days." |
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