Man survives 27 hours at sea after tsunami
A
57-year-old Tongan man being hailed a real-life Aquaman for surviving 27 hours
at sea after Saturday's devastating tsunami struck his island said he went under
nine times before latching onto a log and making it to safety.
"On
the eighth time I thought, the next time I go underwater that's it, because my
arms were the only things that were keeping me above water," Lisala Folau,
who is disabled and cannot walk properly, told Reuters from Tonga's capital,
Nuku'alofa.
"So the ninth time I went under and came up and
grabbed a log. And that's what kept me going."
The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano killed
at least three people and sent tsunami waves rolling across the Tongan archipelago, damaging villages
and resorts and knocking out communications for the nation's 105,000 people.
Folau,
who lived on the isolated island of Atata, with a population of about 60
people, was swept out to sea on Saturday evening.
He
had climbed a tree to escape a first wave but when he got down, another big
wave swept him out.
"I
could hear my son calling from land but I didn't want to answer my son because
I didn't want him to swim out to find me," said Folau.
"The
waves kept twirling around here and there ... What came to mind is, at sea
there is life and death. Until you reach the shore, then you know if you are
alive or dead."
Folau
said he slowly managed to swim 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) to the main island of
Tongatapu, reaching the shore 27 hours later on Sunday night.
His
heroics have gone viral on social media, with one Facebook post calling him a
"real life Aquaman", referring to the comic book and film character.
When
asked if he knew who Aquaman was, Folau said he didn't yet.
Reuters
was unable to independently verify the events.
Atata,
about 8 kilometers (4.9 miles) northwest of Nuku'alofa, or a 30-minute boat
ride, has been almost entirely destroyed in the tsunami that hit the islands.
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