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'I Was Thinking I Would Die': California Teen Miraculously Rescued From Underground Sewers

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A 13-year-old boy was miraculously rescued Monday after being trapped in the sewers of Los Angeles for 12 hours.

Officials say Jesse Hernandez had been playing with other children on wooden planks over an access portal to the sewer system when a plank broke and he fell 25 feet into the fast-moving sewage.
 
"I was playing, and I didn't see that it was a little piece of wood and I stepped on it and I just fell down and the current took me," Hernandez said.
 
It took an intense search by LA sanitation workers and firefighters before they found him. Rescuers used specialized floating cameras to map out the maze of pipes.
 
"They never gave up hope... the workers wanted to find Jesse bring him to his family," Adel Hagekahalil, assistant general manager for LA Sanitation, said.
 
Teams finally located Hernandez in a 4-foot sewage pipe about three-quarters of a mile from where he disappeared after being caught in the stream.
 
"Well, I stopped myself because the little tunnel started getting smaller, so I just stood up fast," recalled Hernandez. "There was this big circle thing, and I just went up. Like, I just stood up there for the last 13 hours."
 
Hernandez said he's just thankful to be with his family because things could've ended much worse.
 
"I was thinking I would die," he said.
 
Hernandez was taken to the hospital and released a few hours later. He only suffered minor scratches and bruises.

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