Miraculously, after falling over 200 feet off a cliff, 23-year-old Angela Hernandez was found alive. This incredible and miraculous story speaks to faith, the will to survive, and God sending angels to rescue her.
Angela doesn't remember much of anything from the crash. But Angela Hernandez found herself in serious danger when she woke up at the bottom of a cliff with water wading into her car up to her knees.
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This Oregon native had been traveling to California when she had swerved to avoid hitting an animal. Instead, she hit rock bottom. When she came to, she panicked that she was in the ocean. And when she looked up, the entire top of her car had been ripped off.
Pain tore through her body too. She didn't know the extent of her injuries, but she knew by the looks of her car, she shouldn't be alive. Miraculously, she found a utility knife that she kept in the front of her car. With it, she was able to break open the one remaining window in order to climb out.
After she managed to pull herself from the mangled wreck she had passed out–no doubt from the numerous injuries and exertion it took to extract herself. Angela knew then she was in trouble.
Angela Hernandez Found Herself In Serious Danger
It was one thing to crawl out of her car, it was another to stare 200 feet up at rocky and jagged cliffs to the highway. She knew then that being rescued was more than just a slim chance. No one could see her, much less hear her over the crashing ocean waves and the sound of traffic. For the next seven harrowing days, she fought to stay alive in hopes someone would somehow find her.
She wrote on her Facebook page, "The past week has been unlike anything I've ever experienced in my entire life." She added, "The only thing I really remember after that was waking up," she wrote. "I was still in my car and I could feel water rising over my knees. My head hurt and when I touched it, I found blood on my hands."
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After that she passed out.
"When I woke up, it was still daylight and it was only then that I had finally realized what had happened. I stood up onto my feet and noticed a huge pain in my shoulders, hips, back, and thighs,” Angela recalled. She went on to say, “I saw nothing but rocks, the ocean, and a cliff that I knew I'd never be able to look over. I could see my car not too far from me, half washed up on shore with the roof ripped off of it."
Angela Hernandez knew if she could wait it out just long enough, she might be found. She realized that drinking water was her main priority and so she improvised with what little she had.
Using a hose from her car, she caught water dripping from moss on rocks. As she prayed to be rescued, she spent days watching the cars above pass by and she spent nights dreaming of being rescued. "I could see cars driving across the cliff and felt like if I could yell just loud enough, that one could hear or see me," she wrote. "That's all it would take to make it back to my family. Just one person noticing me."
Angela Hernandez Found Help
On day seven, God intervened. He sent two angels in the form of a husband and wife to save this courageous and tough young woman. Chad and Chelsea Moore are beach lovers and were scouting the area for a good fishing spot when they noticed a car bumper and then a mangled car. Concern filled them as they headed towards the wreck because they assumed by the looks of the wreck, they wouldn't find survivors, they would find bodies.
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Chelsea recalls, "There weren't any signs of people or blood or anything. It looked like there wouldn't have been any survivors." As the couple walked down the beach, they found items from the wreck and as they rounded a corner of the cliff, they saw Angela among the rocks. She looked beaten, battered, dehydrated, and severely sunburned.
Chad couldn't believe what he saw. "Angela was right there in the rocks, just looked like hell. But she was happy at the same time. She was happy to see us. We asked her, ‘Were you in the Jeep?' and she said, ‘That was my Jeep.'"
When Angela saw the couple walking towards her, she thought she was dreaming again. "They acted so quickly. She [Chelsea] ran down the beach and up a trail to go find help while the man stayed with me and gave me fresh water. He told me they were a married couple who loved the ocean and had been exploring when they had come across my destroyed vehicle."
A Miraculous Story To Inspire
First responders had to rope down to Angela. When they arrived, they treated her for her immediate injuries and transported her to the hospital. It was then that Angela learned the extent of her injuries.
She had survived four fractured ribs and collarbone on top of a brain hemorrhage, a collapsed lung, ruptured blood vessels in her eyes as well as other injuries.
Like the lost sheep that had gone astray, she was thankful God had sent Chad and Chelsea to find her and get her safely back to the folds of her family. Chelsea felt the same way. She said, "Angela is here for a reason and we are here for a reason."
We can thank God and rest in his hands because Angela's harrowing story reminds us that we are in God's hands and he will come to the rescue.
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‘‘Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'" Isaiah 41:10
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h/t: Washington Post
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