Former Mets pitcher Jenrry Mejia credited “divine intervention” for saving his life when his elevator brought him to the wrong floor inside his Venezuelan hotel moments before the building collapsed during an earthquake that left over 200 people dead.
Mejia, 36, had just wrapped up his gym session and was heading back to his room as the powerful quakes struck the Caracas region 39 seconds apart, the pitcher told Dominican sports radio show Mañana Deportiva, according to Dominican newspaper Diario Libre.
Mejia boarded an elevator to return to his hotel room, but he was instead brought to the building’s ground floor and main exit when another person requested the lift.
“I was in the gym area. And at that moment, I took the elevator to leave,” Mejia said. “In fact, I had pressed number six, which was where my floor was. But … I think it was God because instead of going up, it went down to the basement.”
Mejia called it an act of “divine intervention” that brought him to the bottom floor and out of the hotel, 40 seconds before it crumbled.
“The door opened directly into the lobby. That’s when I came out and the building started to collapse,” he said.
Mejia, who pitches for La Guaira Delfines of the Venezuelan Major League, says he helped an elderly man out of the hotel, and believes they were the only two who survived the deadly destruction.
“With the agility I have, I helped an elderly gentleman. I was able to drag him away, take him with me,” he told the station. “I think only he and I (came out alive), the others are still there, trapped under the rubble.”
The city of La Guaira, located 15 miles north of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, was the hardest-hit area in the South American country during the earthquake.
The magnitude-7.2 quake struck roughly 100 miles west of Caracas near San Felipe at 6 p.m. Wednesday, before an even bigger 7.5-magnitude temblor hit the town of Yumare, 27 miles away, 39 seconds later, according to the US Geological Survey.
The death toll rose to at least 235 people Thursday night. Another 1,520 people have been reported injured.
Here’s the latest on the Venezuela earthquakes
Mejia had been staying in the Venezuelan city of La Guaira, one of the hardest areas, where an estimated 70,000 families in the coastal state were affected by the deadly quake.
“It has become a disaster zone,” acting President Delcy Rodriguez said as rescue efforts comb through the many debris fields of collapsed buildings.
Mejia revealed he lost all of his possessions, including his passport and couldn’t fly home to the Dominican Republic because all flights had been suspended, according to El Nuevo Diario.
The ex-Mets closer pitched in Queens for his entire five-year MLB career from 2010 to 2015.
Mejia was banned for life by the league for failing his third drug test when he tested positive for the anabolic steroid, Boldenone, in February 2016.
Mejia was given a discretionary reinstatement from Commissioner Rob Manfred after he served the minimum two-year ban.
He briefly signed with the Red Sox on a minor league contract, making appearances across the team’s entire farm system during the 2019 season before playing several years with multiple teams in the Mexican League.
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