NORFOLK, Virginia (11 Oct 2001) -- Trapped in the depths of a capsized boat and unable to determine a path to swim to safety, David DeBarger couldn't avoid making a deadly conclusion. "Is this the way it's going to end?" DeBarger and other Richmond Dive Club members who survived a disaster that claimed 17 of their colleagues in Belize returned to Virginia late last night. After arriving at Norfolk International Airport, three of the survivors from the MV Wave Dancer, which was capsized when Hurricane Iris battered the southern coast of Belize late Monday, spoke briefly to reporters. DeBarger, Mary Lou Hayden and Richard Patterson held hands and fought off tears during their impromptu news conference. DeBarger, creative services director at WCVE/WCVW and vice president of the dive club, did most of the speaking. "We were on the wrong side of the hurricane," he said, shaking his head, when asked to describe what happened. DeBarger said that even with an approaching hurricane, everyone felt comfortable on the 120-foot-long Wave Dancer, which was moored in Big Creek port. But once the storm struck, he said, it was just 12-13 seconds before the boat capsized, everything went dark and water surged into the vessel. DeBarger's initial thought - "I'm not going to die in this boat" - was soon replaced by the sinking feeling that he might be wrong. He swam down a corridor, only to find it led to a dead end. But suddenly he saw a light in the corridor and swam toward it. It was a flashlight being held by Hayden, who was with Patterson. They were near an emergency exit, which had a window that they kicked out, allowing them to swim to the surface. They found a life raft on the surface, grabbed it and were immediately blown ashore. After about 45 minutes in high winds and horizontal rain, they were spotted by the captain of the Belize Aggressor, another dive boat. The captain sent a small motorized landing craft to get them. | | In the worst single accident in the history of recreational scuba diving, 20 people died when the Wave Dancer capsized in Belize. Since the storm passed, the three have had time to ponder their fates. "We wonder about that every moment," Hayden said. "Why are we here and they not? And we miss them terribly." One they will miss is club president Glenn Prillaman. Club member David Mowrer said he and Hayden pulled Prillaman to shore and immediately started CPR on him. He was regurgitating water and his pupils were dilated. They worked on him for about 20 minutes. "We thought we were going to save him but he was already gone," said Mowrer, a 53-year-old diving instructor from Chesterfield County. Family and friends of Richmond Dive Club members chartered a bus to go to the Norfolk airport and greet the survivors. On the ride back to Richmond, passengers mostly sat quietly, carrying on intimate conversations between pairs of people. Lynn McNeal, co-owner of The Dive Shop and club member, went to Norfolk to comfort friends who had survived the ordeal. "It must have been awful for them to get back on that plane, to know there was 30 going there and only 13 coming back." SOURCE - Times Dispatch |
