hellwoman
01-21-2007, 08:14 PM
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/local/16148038.htm
Local man rescues Philippines ferry accident victims
Uses surfboard to keep group of girls afloat
By DANIA AKKAD
Herald Staff Writer
The American with the surfboard could see people flailing in the water.
At a distance, Alex Montenegro thought they looked like ants in a puddle of water. Then his boat got closer and he saw bodies floating among a sinking ferry's debris.
"Let's get some of those people in," an Australian surfer urged Montenegro, a 1988 graduate of Monterey High School whose mother lives in Marina.
Montenegro, 36, prepared the surfboards.
He could jump in the water quickly, he thought, but survivors would swarm around him. They would all drown. So he waited on his ferry, which rocked on the water as the big storm approached.
The ferry turned, and Montenegro could see a young woman in the water. She sank below the surface and then struggled back up for air. She has about three minutes left, he thought.
This was it. He grabbed a surfboard and jumped. It felt like an endless fall, he recalled later.
On Nov. 25, Montenegro, who was on his honeymoon in the Philippines, found himself in the middle of a maritime tragedy. And he became a hero.
A ferry carrying 99 people 400 miles southeast of Manila sank in rough water as a typhoon bore down, according to news reports.
Crew members told investigators that the Leonida II already was tilting when a huge wave smashed into it. The boat overturned before sinking in 250 feet of water. At least 14 passengers died.
Montenegro, an avid surfer, and his wife, Carmen Tuting, were passengers on another ferry, the Maria Sophia, that happened by the sinking boat.
Once Montenegro hit the water, he paddled toward the woman, but instead found a group of children clinging to a five-gallon bottle. They were slipping under water.
"I shoved my surfboard under the arms of about three children simultaneously and grabbed under water with my other hand to those that were sinking," Montenegro said by e-mail from the Philippines on Friday.
Four children gripped his 6-foot-6-inch board. He told them to kick so they could get away from anyone else who might see them.
"We couldn't accommodate anyone else and survive for very much longer," he said.
As Montenegro kicked, his foot hit something soft. He turned back and saw the body of an older woman floating in the water.
Holding the surfboard, the five drifted for about 20 minutes. Then they saw a rainbow. Montenegro, trying to calm the hysterical children, told them the story of Noah and the Ark, in which a rainbow symbolizes God's enduring love for mankind.
Meanwhile, the Maria Sophia was running loops, picking up passengers from the sunken ferry.
But Montenegro and three girls still on the surfboard weren't out of danger, he said. As the rescue ferry arrived, the boat's wash pulled them under water. They held the surfboard as tight as they could.
"My first thought was that I had failed the mission," Montenegro said. "I couldn't believe that we had made it so far only to be killed by the very vessel that was supposed to save us."
For an instant, he considered letting go of the surfboard and saving himself. But he couldn't leave the girls. With all his strength, he pushed the surfboard under water to get away from the turbulence. When it popped back up, he saw sky. Exhausted, they drifted another 10 minutes.
"At this point," he said, "I was struggling to maintain my calm, as I realized that now I was fast becoming a victim."
That was probably a strange feeling for Montenegro, a lifelong surfer who rides waves that scare some of the best surfers on the Monterey Peninsula, local friends say.
"He has a lion-sized heart when it comes to big waves," said Seaside resident Ron Triplett, a friend of Montenegro's for 10 years. They shared a house in Carmel with seven other surfers.
Triplett surfed the biggest wave of his life one day with Montenegro at Carmel Point. Triplett was scared, but Montenegro took the huge surf in stride. He wasn't afraid.
But in the ocean off the Philippines eight days ago, Montenegro was scared to death.
Then, from out of nowhere, a man with a life jacket swam up to Montenegro and the girls. But getting the ferry close enough to rescue them without pushing them under water again was tricky.
After several circles, the ferry managed to get within two feet of them. Montenegro and the other man tied two of the girls to ropes hanging from the ship's deck.
Then Montenegro and the last girl were nearly thrown off the surfboard again by water churning the ferry's propellers. It was like going down the American River rapids on a raft, he said. But he finally was able to tie the third girl to a rescue rope.
Then Montenegro, the last living person pulled from the water, was hoisted onto the boat. His wife, a nurse, treated him and others.
The Maria Sophia picked up 58 people after the accident, six of whom were saved by Montenegro and the other two surfers.
His mother, Linda Montenegro, was watching television at home Sunday when she saw ticker tape across the bottom of the screen. There were a few words about the capsized ferry.
"I thought, 'Oh, I wonder if Alex knows about that,'" she said this week. "And... he was rescuing three girls."
A fourth-grade teacher at Highland Elementary School in Seaside, Linda Montenegro is very proud of her son.
"I'm just so proud that he wasn't thinking of himself and he could do what he could," she said.
Montenegro and Tuting are moving to the Monterey Peninsula in mid-January. She has a job at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, and Alex hopes to work in the hospitality industry.
Today, they are still in the Philippines. Before they leave, they plan to visit the village of one of the girls Alex rescued. They've already talked to relatives of the other two girls.
"The father of one girl hugged me and sobbed for several minutes," he said. "He couldn't thank me enough."
Montenegro moved to Monterey with his family when he was a 10th-grader. He graduated from Monterey Peninsula College, studied politics at the University of California-Santa Cruz and attended Calvary Chapel Bible College in Costa Mesa.
He worked at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley and Carmel Mission Inn, and traveled to the Philippines, his father's home country, for the first time in the late-1990s.
Montenegro soon returned to work as a missionary for four years. He fed street children, did arts and crafts projects with them and taught religion.
He met Tuting in the Philippines. They married in Pacific Grove earlier this year.
Local man rescues Philippines ferry accident victims
Uses surfboard to keep group of girls afloat
By DANIA AKKAD
Herald Staff Writer
The American with the surfboard could see people flailing in the water.
At a distance, Alex Montenegro thought they looked like ants in a puddle of water. Then his boat got closer and he saw bodies floating among a sinking ferry's debris.
"Let's get some of those people in," an Australian surfer urged Montenegro, a 1988 graduate of Monterey High School whose mother lives in Marina.
Montenegro, 36, prepared the surfboards.
He could jump in the water quickly, he thought, but survivors would swarm around him. They would all drown. So he waited on his ferry, which rocked on the water as the big storm approached.
The ferry turned, and Montenegro could see a young woman in the water. She sank below the surface and then struggled back up for air. She has about three minutes left, he thought.
This was it. He grabbed a surfboard and jumped. It felt like an endless fall, he recalled later.
On Nov. 25, Montenegro, who was on his honeymoon in the Philippines, found himself in the middle of a maritime tragedy. And he became a hero.
A ferry carrying 99 people 400 miles southeast of Manila sank in rough water as a typhoon bore down, according to news reports.
Crew members told investigators that the Leonida II already was tilting when a huge wave smashed into it. The boat overturned before sinking in 250 feet of water. At least 14 passengers died.
Montenegro, an avid surfer, and his wife, Carmen Tuting, were passengers on another ferry, the Maria Sophia, that happened by the sinking boat.
Once Montenegro hit the water, he paddled toward the woman, but instead found a group of children clinging to a five-gallon bottle. They were slipping under water.
"I shoved my surfboard under the arms of about three children simultaneously and grabbed under water with my other hand to those that were sinking," Montenegro said by e-mail from the Philippines on Friday.
Four children gripped his 6-foot-6-inch board. He told them to kick so they could get away from anyone else who might see them.
"We couldn't accommodate anyone else and survive for very much longer," he said.
As Montenegro kicked, his foot hit something soft. He turned back and saw the body of an older woman floating in the water.
Holding the surfboard, the five drifted for about 20 minutes. Then they saw a rainbow. Montenegro, trying to calm the hysterical children, told them the story of Noah and the Ark, in which a rainbow symbolizes God's enduring love for mankind.
Meanwhile, the Maria Sophia was running loops, picking up passengers from the sunken ferry.
But Montenegro and three girls still on the surfboard weren't out of danger, he said. As the rescue ferry arrived, the boat's wash pulled them under water. They held the surfboard as tight as they could.
"My first thought was that I had failed the mission," Montenegro said. "I couldn't believe that we had made it so far only to be killed by the very vessel that was supposed to save us."
For an instant, he considered letting go of the surfboard and saving himself. But he couldn't leave the girls. With all his strength, he pushed the surfboard under water to get away from the turbulence. When it popped back up, he saw sky. Exhausted, they drifted another 10 minutes.
"At this point," he said, "I was struggling to maintain my calm, as I realized that now I was fast becoming a victim."
That was probably a strange feeling for Montenegro, a lifelong surfer who rides waves that scare some of the best surfers on the Monterey Peninsula, local friends say.
"He has a lion-sized heart when it comes to big waves," said Seaside resident Ron Triplett, a friend of Montenegro's for 10 years. They shared a house in Carmel with seven other surfers.
Triplett surfed the biggest wave of his life one day with Montenegro at Carmel Point. Triplett was scared, but Montenegro took the huge surf in stride. He wasn't afraid.
But in the ocean off the Philippines eight days ago, Montenegro was scared to death.
Then, from out of nowhere, a man with a life jacket swam up to Montenegro and the girls. But getting the ferry close enough to rescue them without pushing them under water again was tricky.
After several circles, the ferry managed to get within two feet of them. Montenegro and the other man tied two of the girls to ropes hanging from the ship's deck.
Then Montenegro and the last girl were nearly thrown off the surfboard again by water churning the ferry's propellers. It was like going down the American River rapids on a raft, he said. But he finally was able to tie the third girl to a rescue rope.
Then Montenegro, the last living person pulled from the water, was hoisted onto the boat. His wife, a nurse, treated him and others.
The Maria Sophia picked up 58 people after the accident, six of whom were saved by Montenegro and the other two surfers.
His mother, Linda Montenegro, was watching television at home Sunday when she saw ticker tape across the bottom of the screen. There were a few words about the capsized ferry.
"I thought, 'Oh, I wonder if Alex knows about that,'" she said this week. "And... he was rescuing three girls."
A fourth-grade teacher at Highland Elementary School in Seaside, Linda Montenegro is very proud of her son.
"I'm just so proud that he wasn't thinking of himself and he could do what he could," she said.
Montenegro and Tuting are moving to the Monterey Peninsula in mid-January. She has a job at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, and Alex hopes to work in the hospitality industry.
Today, they are still in the Philippines. Before they leave, they plan to visit the village of one of the girls Alex rescued. They've already talked to relatives of the other two girls.
"The father of one girl hugged me and sobbed for several minutes," he said. "He couldn't thank me enough."
Montenegro moved to Monterey with his family when he was a 10th-grader. He graduated from Monterey Peninsula College, studied politics at the University of California-Santa Cruz and attended Calvary Chapel Bible College in Costa Mesa.
He worked at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley and Carmel Mission Inn, and traveled to the Philippines, his father's home country, for the first time in the late-1990s.
Montenegro soon returned to work as a missionary for four years. He fed street children, did arts and crafts projects with them and taught religion.
He met Tuting in the Philippines. They married in Pacific Grove earlier this year.