Survival

ST> GEORGE — A southern Utah woman is badly injured but grateful to be alive after a boulder the size of a small car broke free from a cliff above her house, crashed through her bedroom wall, and hit her like a “giant fist” while she slept, her husband said Tuesday.

Wanda Denhalter has to eat out of a straw because her broken jaw is wired shut, and it’s painful to laugh, cough, blow her nose or sit up because of a broken sternum, said her husband, Scot Denhalter.

An autistic man lived on a few frogs he caught and roots as he wandered for weeks in the remote Escalante Desert of southern Utah until being rescued, emaciated but alive.

William Martin LaFever, 28, of Colorado Springs, Colo., told rescuers that in addition to the bits of food he scavenged, he drank water from the Escalante River while attempting to walk from Boulder, Utah, to Page, Ariz., a distance of approximately 90 miles or more by the route he appeared to be taking.

A veteran outdoor enthusiast who survived four days with a broken leg in the Southern Utah wilderness says she relied on her Mormon faith, played mind games and recited poetry to help pass the time until rescuers arrived.

LONGWOOD, Fla. -- Terri Gurley held on tightly as her dog Riley jerked at the leash and began to growl at the darkness early Friday morning.

The 57-year-old woman turned her head after tossing her pup's waste into the trash compactor of her Seminole County apartment complex when she came within five feet of a 300-pound female black bear.

EAST BERNSTADT, Ky. -- The stories from tornado survivors across the South and Midwest were remarkable: schoolchildren took cover under desks, people hunkered down in a church basement or hid out in a bank vault. One family even piled on top of one another for protection.

One of the most remarkable survivors was a toddler found alone in a field near her Indiana home. Her four immediate family members were among at least 36 people killed by tornadoes that scarred communities scattered across hundreds of miles of the nation's midsection from Alabama to Indiana.

An apology: My Sunday column said Sen. Orrin Hatch was one of many prominent people who have written U.S. District Judge Dee Benson on behalf of Brigham City Dr. Dewey MacKay, asking that MacKay receive a lenient sentence for his drug convictions.

As far as I know, Sen. Hatch is not among those who have written to Judge Benson on MacKay's behalf. I should not have included him in that column. I did so in error.

SALT LAKE CITY -- An Emery County woman recovering after falling 50 feet down a rocky canyon says her husband gets the credit for helping her survive until rescuers arrived 11 hours later.