Basta: In an astonishing incident, a nonagenarian woman who was washed away three kilometers in a river came back alive after a day in Bahardda village under Basta police limits in Balasore district. The incident took place Sunday night.
According to sources, the 90-year-old woman Barnabala Bhoi had dinner Sunday and went off to sleep. Her family members checked on her at about 11pm and found she was in fast asleep.
Later in the night, one of the family members found she was not in her bed. The family launched a search and found a torch on the bank of adjacent Jalaka river. Assuming something bad might have happened, the family used every option to find her out, but all efforts went in vain.
However, the next morning a temple priest Saroj Kumar Panda found her on the bank of Jalaka river at Belasuni village of Kudia panchayat, three kilometers from her house. Panda immediately alerted local youth leader Nrusingha Charan, who rescued her and gave her a saree to cover herself.
As the news of her survival spread, villagers thronged the place just to have glimpse of the nonagenarian with utter surprise. “We had heard of God’s miracle. Now we have seen a case with our eyes. For an elderly woman like her, coming out alive from water after spending the whole night is near impossible. It is nothing but God’s blessing,” the astonished villagers observed.
His relatives were accordingly informed and they took her home, but not before thanking god, Saroj and Nrushingha. Despite being 90, Barnabala recalled how she reached the bank.
Barnabala said she had gone to attend nature’s call when she accidentally slipped and was washed away by the river current. Later she found herself stuck at the sluice gate near Belasuni village and managed to swim across to the shore. She herself thanked God for saving her life.
PNN
