A man was rescued from under mountains of earthquake rubble after surviving for eight days. Hernán Alberto Gil Flores, 44, was pulled from under 29 feet of wreckage, as reported by CNN Thursday morning. The shopping mall security guard was caught in the collapse of the nine-story mall’s parking lot in the coastal city of La Guaria, one of the cities most affected by the natural disaster. Rescue teams identified a living victim using radar sonar and sound detection equipment, and further identified Flores by his fingers waving beneath piles of debris. Throughout the mission, which lasted several days, teams communicated with Flores and provided him with food and water. As the death toll from the devastating earthquakes rises, with 50,000 people currently unaccounted for, miracle rescues such as Flores’ provide slight glimmers of hope for those affected. “Once I found out that he was alive, I saw a ray of sunshine,” Flores’ wife, Usbimar Gonzales, said. “He was holding up like a hero.” The magnitudes of the two earthquakes, which struck 39 seconds apart, were 7.2 and 7.5, respectively. According to an announcement from the Coastan Rican Red Cross via Facebook, the man is “medically stable.”
