“More Than a Miracle”

International rescue crews in Haiti rescued a man who survived beneath rubble on crackers and beer for eleven days just hours after search-and-rescue operations were officially halted. “A man was dramatically rescued tonight after spending 11 days under the rubble of a hotel in Port-au-Prince, hours after the Haitian government declared search and rescue operations over. The survival of 22-year-old Wismond Exantus Jean-Pierre was hailed as ‘more than a miracle’ by international emergency teams who had been at the point of leaving Port-au-Prince. ‘I was hungry,’ Jean-Pierre said from his hospital bed. ‘But every night I thought about the revelation that I would survive.’ He survived initially by diving under a desk when the rubble started to fall. Trapped in such a small space, he had lie on his back and survived by drinking cola, beer and cookies. ‘I would eat anything I found,’ he said. ‘After the quake I didn’t know when it was day and when it was night.’”