The 23-year-old Oregon musician who survived her Jeep plunging 250 feet off a cliff and spent the next seven days alone and screaming for help, says she thought the hiking couple who found her were part of a dream.
Angela Hernandez described in detail how the ordeal happened, and that she now believes there is a bigger purpose for her, while sharing images of her injuries and her mangled white Jeep in a post to Facebook.
Angela says she was enjoying a beautiful drive down the coast to see her sister, Isabel, back home in Southern California on July 6 when she severed to avoid a small animal while passing through Big Sur.
‘I don’t really remember much of the fall. They say I fell somewhere around 250 feet.’
Angela Hernandez, 23, describes in detail her harrowing seven day ordeal that started when she swerved her car to avoid a small animal and plummeted 250-feet off a cliff in Big Sur, California. The accident left her with a brain hemorrhage and several broken bones
‘It didn’t look like there would be any survivors,’ said one of the two hikers who first came across Angela’s car, before finding her, on their walk along the beach
Angela, pictured with Chelsea Moore just after Moore & husband Chad found the injured but happy to finally be found musician on the beach (posing with the license plate from her Jeep)
Angela Hernandez, 23, went missing on Friday July 6 as she drove from Portland, Oregon to her sister’s home in Lancaster, California
The next thing she remembers, she says, was waking up.
‘I was still in my car and I could feel water rising over my knees. My head hurt and when I touched it, I found blood on my hands.’
Angela says the power was totally off in the car by now- so she grabbed the multi-tool she kept near her front seat and smashed open the window.
As she worked her way out of the car, she added that every bone in her body hurt.
The first thing that came out of her mouth was her screaming her sister’s name, since the ‘only thing racing through my mind was my sister, Isabel’ she says.
Angela jumped out of the car, and into the Pacific Ocean.
The hiking couple, husband and wife Chad and Chelsea Moore who found her while they were strolling the beach told KION there is no beach at all during high-tide.
With her shoes gone from her feet, she climbed up some rocks on the desolate beach and fell asleep.
She says the next few days she went between screaming at the cars above hoping someone passing would hear her, wrestling with tiny crabs, and around day three, she realized that dehydration was kicking in.
The 23-year-old says she knew she had a gallon of water in her car but she was never able to reach it. While searching the car she found a radiator hose that she tucked into her shirt.
Next, she found water dripping off moss, and tasted it.
‘It was fresh!!!! I collected as much as I could in my little hose and drank from it for maybe an hour,’ she says.
The days passed and she says she kept walking up and down the beach, looking for human contact, screaming help, and collecting water, while looking for new high grounds.
‘My last morning on the beach was an especially good one.’
‘I woke up in the middle of the night because of shoulder pain, but looked up and noticed the big dipper in the sky.’
‘It was warm out and I finally woke up before the sun had gone down. When I sat up, I saw a woman walking across the shore. I thought she was a dream. (I had a few just like this during the past few days).’
While on the road on July 6 she swerved after seeing an animal on the road, lost control of her car, and plummeted down a 250 foot cliff in Big Sur, California, pictured above during rescue
She was spotted on Friday by two hikers who found her yelling for help on the remote Monterey County beach. Rescue crew arrived shortly afterwards to hoist her to safety
‘I screamed, “HEEELLLPPPPP!” and then got up as quickly as I could and ran over to her.’
‘She was with a man and I don’t think they could believe their eyes. They acted so quickly. She ran down the beach and up a trail to go find help while the man stayed with me and gave me fresh water,’ she says of the miraculous exchange on the Monterey County beach.
‘He told me they were a married couple who loved the ocean and had been exploring when they had come across my destroyed vehicle. He pulled out some of my belongings from their backpack (some of the most important ones, I’m not even kidding).’
She says the rescue team was able to pull her up off the cliff and a helicopter took her to a hospital, where she was reunited with her family who had been frantically searching for her.
While Angela was missing, her family searched by air and land for her, they had fliers made up and offered a $10,000 reward for information on her disappearance.
Doctors told her she suffered a brain hemorrhage in the first few days of her crash.
She also had four fractured ribs, a lung collapse, blood vessels broken in both eyes, a fractured collar bone and intense sunburn to her hands feet and face.
She says, despite her injuries, the experience has given her life changing perspective.
‘I feel like I have everything I’ve ever wanted. I’m sitting here in the hospital, laughing with my sister until she makes broken bones hurt.’
‘I’ve met some of the most beautiful human beings that I think I’ll ever meet in my entire life. I’ve experienced something so unique and terrifying and me that I can’t imagine that there isn’t a bigger purpose for me in this life.’
‘I don’t know, you guys, life is incredible,’ she concluded.
The hikers that found her seem to agree.
In their interview with KION, Chelsea said when they first saw the car ‘It didn’t look like there would be any survivors.’
They collected the license plate from the Jeep to give to authorities in case it would help in a yet unknown search. They started to make their way back to their campsite when they came upon Angela.
‘She looked like hell, but she was really happy to see us,’ Chad says.
Chad says, speaking to Angela in the event she see their interview: ‘I can’t believe you’re alive, you’re a hero, that’s unreal. You made it.’
Chelsea added to Angela,’You are here for a reason and we were there for a reason, and we’re so glad you made it and that you’re going to be okay.’
After her family couldn’t reach her after July 6, a $10,000 reward for information on her whereabouts was posted
A wide shot reveals the dangerous fall she took and miraculously survived despite crashing down the steep cliff into the rocky depths below
She crashed in her white Jeep Patriot that was left completely destroyed in the 200ft plunge
Safe and sound: She was found breathing, conscious, and able to walk and talk
Her sister shared her relief on Facebook saying: ‘She’s a fighter and she fought this long and she will continue to. It’s not going to be an easy recovery’
The Sheriff’s office confirmed that she was found and transported to a nearby hospital
Her rescue on Friday was a sigh of relief for her family.
‘My sister is alive, she’s talking, and she’s still trying to come to understand everything. She’s a fighter and she fought this long and she will continue to. It’s not going to be an easy recovery. I hope everyone will have patience for her and her recovery,’ Angela’s sister Isabel Hernandez wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
When she was found her car was partially submerged in the water and she was able to walk and talk as police scaled down the cliff on ropes to hoist her to safety on Friday.
‘Angela was found about 200 feet down a cliff. Her vehicle was partially in the water. She was found by two people walking in the area, who called 911,’ the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office shared on Facebook.
She was transported by ambulance to a waiting helicopter and then to Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, according to SFGate.
The 23-year-old raised alarm when she was unreachable by her family on July 6.
The day prior stayed at a Safeway parking lot in Half Moon Bay where she slept for the night. On the morning of July 6 she texted her sister saying she was hitting the road before she suddenly went off the grid.
She was last spotted on surveillance camera at a gas station that showed her vehicle near Carmel, California that Friday.
The family started a GoFundMe page to aid in financing Angela’s search efforts that will now be used to help in her recovery process.
‘In her accident, she has lost everything. Including her car, which was her livelihood. I’m sharing this again because any little bit helps, it will all be going my sister who lost so much and gained so much all in one time. This is very traumatic and will be a slow recovery process,’ her sister Isabel wrote.
‘Thank you all for everything … for her rescue and for bringing her up the cliff. She says she met so many beautiful people,’ Isabel added on Facebook thanking everyone who aided in the search and rescue effort.