Survivors of Italy avalanche say they never gave up hope

GIULIANOVA, Italy -- First there was a loud roar. Then darkness -- hours and hours of darkness.

A couple among the nine survivors of an Italian avalanche that devastated a mountain hotel said they survived nearly 58 hours buried beneath feet of snow by sucking on glass- and mud-filled ice, comforting each other and those nearby and praying.

The initial shock was so loud and the force so strong, the couple -- 22-year-old Giorgia Galassi and her boyfriend, 25-year-old Vincenzo Forti -- said Wednesday they were convinced it was another earthquake rocking the luxury Hotel Rigopiano.

They never considered the threat of an avalanche at the snowbound resort.

"I don't think anyone imagined it. We didn't know until the firefighters told us. We thought the whole time it was a very strong earthquake," Galassi said in her parents' living room in the town of Giulianova, sitting next to Forti.

She wore a necklace of an angel a friend had just given her, celebrating their survival.

Galassi and Forti were two of nine people pulled out alive after the Jan. 18 avalanche. At least 25 others died, and four remain missing in the mountainous region northeast of Rome.

They said they were scared but never gave up hope they would survive.

They had arrived at the luxury hotel the evening before the avalanche.

When it hit the next afternoon, they were gathered with other guests ready to leave, sitting in a tea room or standing in the adjacent entry hall, waiting for a snowplow to clear the 5 1/2-mile road through Gran Sasso park so they could go home.

Galassi said she was fearful of the temblors that had started that morning and had waited outside for a while. But she went back into the hotel because of the cold and after the hotel management's assurances it had resisted previous quakes.

It wasn't long before a loud roar announced the tragedy.

"It all started from a rumble," Forti told a news conference at a hotel later Wednesday. "And then everything collapsed. A roar, what can I say, a roar."

After the shock of finding themselves beneath a wicker chair that protected them from a beam, Galassi and Forti said the first relief was realizing they were not alone.

"When we fell, when everything fell on top of us, we yelled, 'Is anyone alive? We are alive!'" Galassi said. "Then we heard another voice, and we were relieved."

When they looked up, they had just 20 inches between their heads and the ceiling. The space was less than that of a single bed, Forti said. But behind them, they could see ice through a broken glass panel they could reach if they stretched. That ice was their lifeline, something to suck on and quench their thirst.

"At times there was even glass and mud (in the ice). But it was survival," Galassi said.

For a while, their cellphones gave them some light. The then dark came. The young couple huddled together in the tiny space, sitting at first, then lying down to sleep, using Galassi's fur coat and a blanket they found nearby for warmth.

Forti said heat from the fireplace near where they had sat kept the temperatures comfortable for many hours. Rescuers also said the survivors were insulated by yards of snow on top of them, which created an igloo effect.

During the wait for help, they spoke with Francesca Bronzi, one of the other survivors on the other side of the beam. Bronzi had a watch and helped them keep track of time. They heard a mother with her son nearby, who turned out to be Adriana Vranceanu and her 8-year-old son Gianfilippo, both of whom survived.

Vranceanu's husband, Giampaolo Parete, was outside when the avalanche hit and sounded the alarm. Their 6-year-old daughter, Ludovica, was pulled from the rubble with the two other children staying at the hotel, who spent nearly two days together in a billiard room.

Galassi said she passed the time in prayer.

"I don't think I have ever prayed so much in my life," Galassi said.

Despite their conviction that help would arrive, there were moments of despair, and they took turns comforting each other.

Galassi said they first heard rescuers around 11 a.m. Friday -- nearly two days after the avalanche -- when they heard Vranceanu speaking with a voice they hadn't heard before.

"When I heard she was speaking with someone, I yelled, 'Who are you speaking to?' She said 'I am speaking with Mauro, who is a rescuer. They came to save us.' They said to stay calm, that they would pull us out."

"We started to yell and to knock to make ourselves heard. And after a while he came also to talk to us," Galassi said.

Within a short time, they were free.

Galassi credited Forti's strength for helping keep her spirits up, along with his focus on seeking solutions to their predicament. She said the ordeal had only strengthened their bond.

"We said even this happened to us and we got out together," Galassi said. "I believe it is truly a miracle."

The couple said they were relieved to hear all four children staying at the hotel had survived, but they are haunted by the deaths of so many of their companions, including Bronzi's boyfriend.

"I think thank God that I am safe, but I am very sorry, truly deeply, because I knew these people and I saw the terror in their eyes. These people had children," Galassi said, stopping. "It could have happened even to me. It could have happened to him."