EDMOND, Okla. (KOCO) – An Oklahoma couple who went missing while diving were rescued after nearly 40 hours at sea, something that family and friends say is nothing short of a miracle.
Kim and Nathan Maker spent 38 hours floating in the water off the Texas coast, waiting for someone to rescue them. The couple were diving with a group Wednesday when a storm hit.
“The rain was so hard that you couldn’t see outside,” diver Lisa Shearin said. “It stormed, and the winds and waves were atrocious.”
Fellow divers say the others made it to the boat, but the Makers were drifting.
“A huge swell comes in and engulfs Kim and Nathan totally. When the swell rolls out, they’re nowhere to be found,” said Charles Owen, a relative of the couple.
Despite the conditions, the other divers didn’t hesitate to search for their missing friends. When they had to leave, the U.S. Coast Guard took over the search.
After a day with no luck in finding the Makers, their family was losing hope. They prayed, and those prayers were answered when the couple were spotted by a plane flying over the Gulf of Mexico late Thursday.
“They take their dive flashlights and start signaling the SOS signal to that plane. That plane saw them,” Owen said.
The Coast Guard sent a ship to rescue the couple just eight hours before their family says the search would have been called off.
“It was God performing a miracle using the Coast Guard’s eyes and ears and their technology, and that’s what saved them at the last minute,” Owen said.
The Makers are currently in a Texas hospital with jellyfish stings and sunburns. Family members say Nathan Maker was nearly in a diabetic coma when he was rescued, but both he and his wife are expected to be OK.
Through the storm and hours of uncertainty, the couple never left each other’s side.
“Even when the swell came over, they found them; they were together,” Owen said.
Family and friends say the couple’s rescue is nothing short of a miracle.
“People don’t survive that and not have a story to tell,” Shearin said. “They have a greater purpose, obviously. God truly did spare them.”
The Coast Guard says the couple were found about 15 miles offshore from Matagorda, Texas. The search for them lasted 36 hours and spanned about 1,650 square miles.…Read more by KOCO via CNN Newsource
