Brooklyn Woman Survives 36-Hour Ordeal in Guyanese River

Brooklyn Woman Survives 36-Hour Ordeal in Guyanese River
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A 48-year-old Brooklyn woman who survived almost two days bobbing in a river said she was kept alive by the desire to see her 19-year-old daughter again.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — A 48-year-old Brooklyn woman who survived almost two days bobbing in a river here said she was kept alive by the desire to see her 19-year-old daughter again.

The woman, Sherry Haynes, who was born in Guyana, was riding across the Corentyne River, which separates Guyana and the neighboring South American nation of Suriname, in a water taxi on Oct. 24 when it apparently snagged on a fishing net and capsized.


She was in Guyana to spread her brother’s ashes along Guyana’s rivers, as he had wished. The trip along the Corentyne was supposed to last just 20 minutes.

Only Ms. Haynes and a crew member on the boat survived the accident. Six people died, including her sister and a nephew, who also lived in the New York area.

“My husband told me he would have given up after the first night, but I am not like that,” she said on Saturday. “At nights I drifted to Suriname, and in the day to Guyana, and then back again. The tides were very strong.”

Ms. Haynes, who works at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, said prayer kept her going. She said she realized people were trying to rescue her when she saw police boats in the river.

“But none came close to me,” she said. “I saw them in the distance.”

Nearly 36 hours after she went into the water, Ms. Haynes hit a sandbank. A cattle herder rescued her, fed her and called the authorities.
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