They thought they would all perish in their icy grave.
But just as they were about to give up hope, the survivors heard the voices of "angels" above them who eventually rescued them from a devastating avalanche that buried a resort hotel where they were staying in Italy on Jan. 18, CBN News reported.
Italian rescuers saved the lives of at least 11 of the guests and staff who were inside Hotel Rigopiano when the massive wall of snow struck, killing 29 others, according to CNN. Nine of those rescued, including four children, were pulled from air pockets in the snow-covered wreckage. The two others were found sheltering inside a car outside the destroyed hotel.
One of the survivors, 22-year-old Girogia Galassi, told reporters how her faith and those of others were tested to the limit as they laid stuck under an icy debris, hoping and praying for someone to find and rescue them.
She said "it felt like a bomb" when the avalanche struck them. "I felt glass exploding all around me," she recalled.
She said they survived by drinking ice water. But ironically, despite being covered by tonnes of snow, they had difficulty finding drinking water that was sustaining them, causing them to panic.
It was at that point when they started hearing voices above them, which renewed their hope. "When we heard a rescuer it was as if an angel was talking to us, as if someone had come to pick us up literally from under the ground," Galassi said.
She said she felt she "was born again" after her "angel rescuers" lifted her up and took her away from the wreckage. "It was a miracle," she gushed.
One of those who found refuge inside a vehicle parked just outside the hotel described what happened, The Local reported.
"My wife told me she had a headache so I went to the car to get some pills for her," Giampiero Parete, a 38-year-old chef, told rescuers.
"As soon as I got out I felt this wind and then this deafening noise of trees cracking, trunks cascading down the hillside. Then the hotel collapsed under this enormous wave of snow and half the mountain. My car was the only thing that escaped, by a few centimetres," he said.
