This is Rizal Shahputra, an Indonesian man who survived the tsunami in Banda Aceh and was swept 100 miles out to sea, surviving for 8 days before being rescued.
The story goes that on December 26th, Rizal was cleaning a mosque when suddenly a group of children rushed in to warn him about the incoming waves. However, before they could all escape, the tsunami smashed into the mosque, sweeping them all out to sea. In the water, Rizal tried to grab on to any floating debris, and eventually he found some uprooted trees to cling on to. He fashioned the trees into a makeshift raft to float on. The first day floating in the sea, Rizal saw hundreds of people struggling to stay afloat or swimming all around him, trying to find any floating debris to cling on to. On the second day, he saw six women drown, unable to cling on to the debris any longer. "They were asking me to help them but I couldn't." Rizal later recalled. As the days passed, he saw more and more of his friends and family dying one by one. "At first, there were some friends with me," Rizal said. "After a few days, they were gone... I saw bodies left and right. Everybody sank, my family members sank. There were bodies around me." Rizal survived on rain water he somehow managed to collect and floating coconuts in the water. During the 8 days, one ship had actually missed him floating on his raft, until the crew of the Japanese-owned MV Durban Bridge finally spotted him. They fished him out of the water. The ship's chief officer, Huang Wen Feng, described Rizal's survival as a miracle. "When I saw him, I was very very surprised to see someone standing," he said. "He was shouting at us. I couldn't believe it." Rizal had suffered multiple injuries from the tsunami and was sunburnt, but he had survived.
2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Archives
This is Rizal Shahputra, an Indonesian man who survived the tsunami in Banda Aceh and was swept 100 miles out to sea, surviving for 8 days before being rescued.
The story goes that on December 26th, Rizal was cleaning a mosque when suddenly a group of children rushed in to warn him about the incoming waves. However, before they could all escape, the tsunami smashed into the mosque, sweeping them all out to sea. In the water, Rizal tried to grab on to any floating debris, and eventually he found some uprooted trees to cling on to. He fashioned the trees into a makeshift raft to float on. The first day floating in the sea, Rizal saw hundreds of people struggling to stay afloat or swimming all around him, trying to find any floating debris to cling on to. On the second day, he saw six women drown, unable to cling on to the debris any longer. "They were asking me to help them but I couldn't." Rizal later recalled. As the days passed, he saw more and more of his friends and family dying one by one. "At first, there were some friends with me," Rizal said. "After a few days, they were gone... I saw bodies left and right. Everybody sank, my family members sank. There were bodies around me." Rizal survived on rain water he somehow managed to collect and floating coconuts in the water. During the 8 days, one ship had actually missed him floating on his raft, until the crew of the Japanese-owned MV Durban Bridge finally spotted him. They fished him out of the water. The ship's chief officer, Huang Wen Feng, described Rizal's survival as a miracle. "When I saw him, I was very very surprised to see someone standing," he said. "He was shouting at us. I couldn't believe it." Rizal had suffered multiple injuries from the tsunami and was sunburnt, but he had survived.
Sources:
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/survivor-clu…
www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/news/2005/03/05/su…
www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jan/06/tsunami2004.…
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