- TRUJILLO, Honduras (AP) -- Flushed out of her village by Hurricane Mitch's
raging floodwaters and drifting for six days far into the Caribbean Sea,
Laura Isabel Arriola de Guity was alone.
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- Her husband and three children were dead.
All she had was a makeshift raft, the sea below her, the sun in the day
and the moon at night. There was no land in sight.
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- On the sixth day, she spotted a duck
near her raft. "I started to talk with this duck," she recalled.
"I said 'Little duck, send a message that I'm alive. Take me to my
people. Take me to the shore."
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- "I started crying and I said, 'Why
don't you take me so that I can fly somewhere with you?"'
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- Arriola's desperation ended hours later.
She was spotted by an airplane looking for a yacht that had disappeared
during the storm. A British helicopter rescued her.
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- The 36-year-old schoolteacher is recovering
from dehydration, sun exposure and hypothermia at a hospital in the northern
Honduran city of Trujillo. She is expected to be released soon.
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- In an interview in her ward, Arriola
tried in vain to told hold back tears as she described six days of terror
and miracles, surviving a storm officials say killed at least 10,000 people
in Central America.
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- Arriola and her family lived in the village
of Barra de Aguan, near the mouth of the Aguan River. Normally her house
was about two miles from the sea on one side and more than a mile from
the river on the other. But when Hurricane Mitch stalled over the Honduran
coast Oct. 28, the sea and the river merged into what seemed like a single
body of water.
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- Arriola's house was quickly swept away,
so her family took refuge at a neighbor's home. Fourteen people climbed
onto the roof, but when a wall collapsed below, they returned downstairs.
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- They briefly found shelter in one room,
but a wall there also caved in and the river tore through the house. Arriola
clutched her 4-year-old son, Andersson Moises, and shouted at her husband
and brother-in-law to grab the other two children: Frances Elizabeth, 8,
and Ricardo Gerson, 10.
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- She tried to hold on to her son, but
the river ripped them apart.
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- "I tried to float so I could see
over the water," she said. "I swam and swam, trying to save him,
trying to get to somewhere dry. And then I realized I was already in the
sea."
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- She never saw her family again.
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- Arriola, a strong swimmer, clung to some
floating palm branches for four hours. Using debris in the water, she made
a 4-foot by 4-foot raft out of tree roots, branches and a mortarboard.
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- "I was thinking, I was begging God
to let someone find me and rescue me," she said. "But there was
no one. No one saw me"
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- Debris littered the sea. Arriola spotted
the corpse of a child, along with several dead animals. But she also found
coconuts, which gave her milk, as well as pineapples and oranges.
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- On the second day, she spotted two islands
in the distance, which she believed were Roatan and Utila -- about 100
miles from her home. But the sea and winds pushed her in the other direction.
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- Arriola slept little. Rough seas made
it difficult to rest, and she was knocked off the raft several times.
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- "The worst part for me was after
being with my whole family, with my children, my husband, that I could
be so alone in the sea without seeing anybody," she said.
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- "I cried every day. I was crying
more than I was quiet. Day and night I cried and screamed. I was praying,
worshipping. I did it all. The only thing I couldn't do was run, because
there was no place for me to run to."
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- She passed the time singing religious
songs, talking to God and to her husband and children. "I wasn't feeling
so lonely when I was thinking of them as if they were close to me,"
she said.
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- Her prayers bore fruit Nov. 2, when she
saw a plane flying by and waved at it. It turned and passed over her again.
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- "I was trying to stand up on the
raft, but a wave threw me in the sea," she said.
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- She climbed back on the raft and took
off her black T-shirt because she thought her red bra might be more visible.
The plane passed again, this time dropping something in the water that
exploded. It was likely intended to mark the spot, but Arriola was scared
she was being bombed.
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- The plane descended and passed again.
This time, she could see two people inside who gestured toward her.
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- About half an hour later, she saw something
in the air that she thought was a bird. It turned out to be a British helicopter
coming to rescue her. A crewman was lowered to the raft and placed Arriola
in a harness before she was pulled on board.
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- "I told him, thank God you have
saved me. Thank God," she said.
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- She said she doesn't know where she was
picked up, but news accounts said it was 25 miles north of Guanaja Island
-- about 75 miles from her home.
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- The crew members at first thought she
might have been a survivor of the Fantome, a Windjammer schooner apparently
destroyed during the storm with 31 crew members aboard.
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- Asked why she thinks she survived while
so many others died, Arriola paused.
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- "To me it was because I was in the
arms of God," she said. "God had me in his arms, because it's
only with his help that I am still able to live."
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- Arriola says she'll likely live with
relatives after being discharged from the hospital. The bodies of her husband
and daughter have been found. The other two children are presumed dead.
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- With her family and home gone, she doesn't
know what she'll do with the rest of her life.
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- "I have nothing. I have nowhere
to go," she said. "I lost it all."
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