Nuns survive three days trapped in Rome lift (elevator)

[Path_Finder]

Nuns survive three days trapped in Rome lift

Two nuns have been rescued from a lift in Rome after being trapped for three days without food and water.

The 69-year-old from New Zealand and a 58-year-old Irish nun became stuck on Friday at the Marist convent after an electrical power failure.

They cried out for help but there was no-one in the building over the weekend, Italian media said.

They were discovered on Monday by a cleaner who called police after ringing the doorbell and receiving no reply.

The police entered the building and called out if anyone was there and the nuns replied: “Yes, we are here, in the elevator”, according to Il Messaggero.

The two women later said they had “prayed so much” while trapped, Il Messaggero reported.

They were taken to a nearby hospital where they were treated for dehydration.

bbc.com/news/world-asia-33059061

 

[St_Francis]

I am surprised no one noticed they weren’t where they were supposed to be for the entire weekend!

 

[Path_Finder]

This story is probably not that significant compared to others but the BBC thought it merited being reported.

 

[pensmama87]

I’m surprised it’s not standard for elevators in Italy to have emergency buttons (though it could be a case of things being grandfathered in). I did get stuck in an elevator one time and hit the emergency button and was connected right to 911. Stuck time - less than 20 minutes.

 

[OraLabora]

I’m surprised it’s not standard for elevators in Italy to have emergency buttons (though it could be a case of things being grandfathered in). I did get stuck in an elevator one time and hit the emergency button and was connected right to 911. Stuck time - less than 20 minutes.

Once many years ago I was working as an environmental scientist in a paper mill. We were sampling emissions from the top of the digester building (where they cook the wood chips into pulp). We were working on a Sunday night (we were on-site for 2 weeks); at about 9 pm we came down from the roof, got on the elevator and went down. It got stuck between the cooks floor and the ground floor. This building was about 11 storeys tall, with LONG distances between floors.

We kept ringing and ringing the bell but nothing happened so we opened the trap door on top, and climbed up a rung ladder embedded in the shaft wall all the way up to the next floor, the cook’s floor (named for the cooks that cook the wood chips into pulp), the equivalent of about two normal storeys in an office building.

When we got out we asked the cooks why nobody responded to the bell. The response “oh we thought someone was just ringing it for the heck of it, happens all the time”.

I can sort of see this kind of thing happening in Rome in some of those ancient buildings with equally ancient lifts.

I guess prayer is uplifting but does not necessarily make the lift go up…

 

[ProVobis]

I’m surprised it’s not standard for elevators in Italy to have emergency buttons (though it could be a case of things being grandfathered in). I did get stuck in an elevator one time and hit the emergency button and was connected right to 911. Stuck time - less than 20 minutes.

I spent about that much time on a stuck elevator once. Seemed like an eternity. Not fun at all.

Learned to use the stairs more often after that.