Missing Oregon Woman Found Alive After Car Plunges Off Big Sur Cliff

Mary Papenfuss
Updated
An Oregon woman whose Jeep plunged off a Big Sur, California, cliff was found

An Oregon woman whose Jeep plunged off a Big Sur, California, cliff was found alive on a rocky beach seven days after she was reported missing, police said Friday.

Authorities were alerted by a couple who spotted the woman’s white Jeep and heard her cries for help Friday evening, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Deputies from the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office found 23-year-old Angela Hernandez of Portland at the bottom of a cliff along California’s coastal Highway 1 near Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

She had an injured shoulder and a concussion, according to authorities. But rescuers on scene reported she was talking and able to walk, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

“Angela was found about 200 feet down a cliff. Her vehicle was partially in the water,” the sheriff’s office said. Rescuers from the California Highway Patrol, the State Parks Department and local fire departments “responded and were able to bring her back to the roadway. She was transported by ambulance to a waiting helicopter, then to the hospital. Reports are she was talking and could walk.”

Hernandez was driving from Oregon to her sister’s home in southern California when she went missing, officials said. She called her family July 5 and was seen on a gas station surveillance camera south of Carmel, California, on July 6.

After she was rescued, Hernandez told authorities she drove off the road when she swerved to avoid an animal, according to the Chronicle. She said she used her car’s radiator hose to drink water from a nearby stream. Authorities were still investigating what day the crash occurred.

Hernandez’s sister thanked rescuers on her Facebook page.

“My sister is alive, she’s talking, and she’s still trying to come to understand everything,” Isabel Hernandez wrote on Facebook on Saturday. “She’s a fighter and she fought this long and she will continue to. It’s not going to be an easy recovery.”

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.