April Ravello, the pregnant woman who was rescued along with her husband and two children by Caparo villagers on Thursday, says she has “so much to be thankful for.” Saying she feared she would have lost her daughter that day, Ravello said she is “eternally grateful” to the men who braved the dirty, muddy flood waters to save her family.
A video of the rescue posted on social media has garnered widespread comment and commendation for the men involved.
Yesterday, Ravello said she and her family were driving from Rio Claro along the Caparo Road to get to Chaguanas where her husband had a basketball game scheduled for 3 pm. She said just after 2 pm flood waters started to inundate the car.
“It stalled and started going down. It was being pulled by the current from the nearby river,” she said.
Ravello’s two-year-old son Njisane was in a car seat and she quickly unlocked it, grabbed him and handed him to her husband, Nathyon Lewis. However, before she could get to her daughter, Angel, the car started to sink.
“My daughter went under the water and I tell my husband she gone,” she recalled.
Ravello said she never let go of her daughter’s jersey and by holding on to a bamboo tree managed to pull her out of the submerged vehicle. She said the children started screaming and crying and Angel kept asking if they were going to die. She said she prayed for someone to rescue them.
When a pickup passed near to where they were, Ravello called out to the occupants but believes they may not have seen them because of a bamboo patch.
She said: “We saw a man walking through the water. I don’t know where he was going or why he was in the water, but we started shouting for help and he answered.”
That man, Victor Dick, who had gone to Caparo to attend a funeral, immediately sprang into action and got the help of Neil Joseph and other villagers to rescue the family.
Ravello, who is four months pregnant, said her family did not get the chance to say a proper thank you to the men
“No words could explain what I am feeling. Thankful, extremely grateful ... there are just no words,” she said.
She said she has not spoken much about what happened, not even to her family, because it was too traumatic.
“I don’t like to think about it. I don’t know how I feel, I don’t even want to remember it. Every time I think about my daughter going under the water I start crying. I can’t help it the tears just keep flowing,” Ravello said.
Ravello believes God intervened and when Dick showed up “it was as if God sent him.” She estimated their ordeal lasted about four hours
“I want to go back to the area to meet them. I understand that one of them is not from the area, but the others who helped us are from there. The woman who took us into her home to shower, she took good care of us, she was very nice and gave us clothes, slippers. She gave us something to eat and washed our clothes,” she said.