Photo: Zhanjiang Daily
A father and son were miraculously rescued after being swept out to sea in South China's Hainan Province by a typhoon. The two survived after enduring 26 hours adrift in cold water.
"After being adrift for two days and nights, we thought all hope was lost. It was you who gave us a second chance at life!" the father, surnamed Zhu, said in tears, expressing gratitude to the local police who saved them in Zhejiang, South China's Guangdong Province on Sunday.
Zhu and his son, who come from Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, were enjoying their time by the coast of Chengmai in Hainan on Friday. Unaware of the increasingly strong waves and wind, they were suddenly swept out to sea by a large wave.
Fortunately, both the father and the son were wearing life jackets. Amid the surging waves, they were pushed further from the shore, drifting in the icy cold seawater for nearly 26 hours.
The waves resulted from Typhoon Wutip, which made landfall in Hainan's Dongfang at around 11:00 pm on Friday with the maximum wind force near the center reaching 30 meters per second. Around 12:30 am on Saturday, the typhoon made its second landfall in Jijia township in Zhanjiang.
On Saturday, Zhu and his son finally drifted to the fishing rafts off the coast of Xuwen county in Guangdong. Exhausted and hungry, Zhu was knocked into the sea by a violent wave and disappeared into the rolling waves in the night. The son, who watched his father being swept away, could only cling tightly to the railing of the fishing raft, enduring the long night alone.
On Sunday morning, after the typhoon had passed, Zhu's son was discovered by local people engaged in disaster relief. Local police then formed a rescue team with local fishermen and piloted a boat to the boy's location. After pulling him aboard, they then took him to the hospital.
Upon learning that Zhu's father was missing, the police immediately launched a comprehensive search operation, organizing one team at sea driving speedboats to search the vast waters and the other on the coast for a foot search along the shoreline.
Five hours later, rescuers finally found the father on an abandoned net cage near Jiaowei township in Zhanjiang. By then, Zhu was near shock and barely consciousness. The police quickly provided him with food and water and rushed him to the hospital for treatment. Both the father and the son pulled through the danger in the end.
