4 Survival Stories (Almost) Too

miraculous to be Real

A human being is a fragile creature. All it takes is a nasty bump or a wrong meal to

finish us off. Still, under the right circumstances people can be invincible. There are a

few men and women who have been able to survive things that could -- and by all rights

should -- kill a horde of elephants. Let's take a moment to celebrate these unkillable

supermen.

#4. The Man Who Was Trapped Underwater (for

Three Days)

Harrison Okene was young, happy, and employed as a cook on a Chevron service

tugboat. Also, he was about to get married in a few days. All he had to do before his

wedding was finish this one ... last ... mission.

Of course, said mission turned into the most terrifying disaster movie.In the early

morning of May 26, 2013, Okene had just got up and was in the bathroom. Suddenly,

his ship was hit by a "sudden ocean swell".

The tugboat capsized and plummeted 100 feet below the surface, with him still inside.

Trapped in the dark abyss with no one else in sight and wearing nothing but his boxers,

Okene waded through the ship's corridors (which were slowly filling with icy water).

He managed to locate a source of light, some Coca-Cola, and a few tools, and he made

it to a relatively safe corner of the ship.

Okene ended up bunking in a 4-foot air pocket under the surface, holding back the water

as best he could and stacking mattresses as the cold water rose to keep dry. To make

things worse, sharks and barracudas soon started roaming the ship's interiors in search

of a meal. He could hear them fighting for the remains of his shipmates in other rooms

and swimming in the water just below him. He had no food. The salt water and the

bumps from the accident were wearing his skin raw. There was far too little air for him

to breathe, and he was ruining it with every breath by puffing out carbon dioxide. He

would not last beyond a couple of hours.

Except that he totally did. In fact, he managed to stay alive for 62 hours.

When the company finally sent a recovery team (they had assumed everyone was dead),

Okene gave a diver the shock of a lifetime: He broke a wall with a hammer.

#3. The Man Who Rode a Tornado

In 2006, the 19-year-old Missouri native was in his grandmother's trailer home when the

weather became rowdy. Suter was just standing on the sofa and attempting to close the

living room window.The floor of the trailer started "moving just like Jell-O." A massive

force hit the trailer.

At this point, it was clear that the storm was a twister. This became even clearer when

Suter, wearing only his underpants, was sucked out of the trailer through a collapsing

wall into the raging darkness beyond.

By the time Suter regained consciousness, he was lying four football fields away from

the remains of the trailer. He survived the 150 mph ride with just minor cuts and

bruises.

#2. The Kid Who Survived a Plane Crash and Tamed a

Mountain

Ollestad didn't always enjoy daddy's lessons, but they did make him tough. He became a

master at everything extreme, from comfortably riding on his father's back while he was

surfing at age 1 to effortlessly skiing impossibly difficult slopes at freaking 4.

On February 19, 1979, Ollestad -- 11 at the time -- and his father were flying to Big

Bear Mountain to get a trophy he had won the day before. Their Cessna was caught in a

blizzard and crashed in the mountains at around 8,600 feet. Ollestad's dad and the pilot

were killed instantly. Ollestad was more or less OK, because of course he was, but the

other survivor (his father's girlfriend, Sandra) had a dislocated shoulder and a busted

head. This less-than-ideal situation was soon made a whole lot worse, because the

rescue helicopters completely missed them. They were on their own. The only way back

to civilization was climbing down.

He went into survival mode, ignoring all the pain and fear. Hanging on by his

fingernails, Ollestad made his way down until he finally got to more solid ground.

Having found the challenge slightly too easy, he decided to descend the rest of the way

by skiing: He used a couple of branches as poles and his sneakers as skis.

After nine hours, Norman finally made it down the mountain in surprisingly good

condition.

#1. The Men Who Stood Under an Atomic Bomb

Look at the men from the video.Suddenly, two planes fly over them and launch a

nuclear missile that detonates directly above them. The men are startled by the force of

the explosion, but observe it calmly and without fear. One of them wears sunglasses and

chews gum throughout the process..

The recording is from July 19, 1957, when these five Air Force volunteers stood

directly under a 2-ton nuclear missile that detonated 18,500 feet (not 10,000 feet, as the

video claims) above them. The aim of the stunt was to assure the American public that

nuclear radiation wasn't much of a problem, and that air-to-air nukes probably were

relatively harmless to people standing directly underneath them, maybe

As far as we know, each of these guys lived a long, full life. In fact, two of them are still

alive.

The fact that they all had cancer at some point of their lives is probably just a

coincidence.