Large python saves Riza and twins<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A few survivors of Sunday's calamity have a snake to thank for
\nbeing alive.<\/p>\n
Riza, a 26-year-old clothes vendor, said that at about 8 a.m.
\nshe was enjoying the holiday in bed when suddenly she saw walls
\nof water, mud, rocks and branches rushing into the neighborhood.
\nPeople were screaming and running. Riza, who was living in a
\nrented house near the coast in Banda Aceh with three friends,
\ndashed up to the second floor of a neighbor's house and stood on
\ntop of a cupboard.<\/p>\n
But as she told Antara from a makeshift shelter on Wednesday,
\nthe current swept her and her friends off their perch. As Riza
\nwas drifting, she saw her neighbors, two girls -- twins -- and
\ntheir mother.<\/p>\n
Riza, who can swim, managed to help the girls. She saw that
\ntheir mother was badly injured.<\/p>\n
\"The mother shouted, 'please help save my children. Let me
\nbe, but please save my children,'\" Riza recounted, in tears.<\/p>\n
As she struggled for her own life and that of the twins, she
\nsaid a large snake as long as a telephone pole approached her.
\nShe and the nine-year-olds rested on the reptile, which was
\ndrifting along with the current.<\/p>\n
\"Thank God, we landed on higher ground where the water level
\nwas only about a meter deep. The twins, who were badly injured,
\nwere safe.\" Riza then slapped her face to make sure she wasn't
\ndreaming.<\/p>\n
Riza, who is currently taking refuge in the Bandar Blang
\nBintang area, plans to go to her relatives' house in Medan, North
\nSumatra.<\/p>\n
\"God still loves me,\" she said, adding that she would never
\nforget the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Another Banda Aceh man is alive, but is among many who must
\ndeal with the loss of their entire family. Surya Darma told
\nReuters that at the first sign of trouble that morning he had
\nimmediately grabbed two of his children, while his wife took
\ntheir third. They bolted from their house outside Banda Aceh
\nafter seeing people running and shouting \"Get out! Get out!\"<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the monstrous wave caught up with them and
\ncrashed over their heads, he said,<\/p>\n
\"The current was just too strong. I held my children for as
\nlong as I could, but they were swept away,\" said Darma, lying on
\nan army cot outside the emergency ward of a military hospital in
\nBanda Aceh on Wednesday, covered by cuts and with a broken leg.<\/p>\n
His wife and his other child also disappeared. He managed to
\nget hold of a floating piece of wood and was swept along until he
\nsmashed into the roof of a shop. The impact broke his leg but he
\nmanaged to climb onto the roof.<\/p>\n
At 35, he said, \"My life is finished. All I can do now is to
\nsurrender to God.\"<\/p>\n
Another survivor, 40-year-old Is, said that he and his family
\nwere inside their car rushing for their lives. But the tidal wave
\nwas too fast.<\/p>\n
\"I managed to get out of the car and climb onto the roof, but
\nmy wife and two children disappeared in the wave,\" the resident
\nof Ajun told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/large-python-saves-riza-and-twins-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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