'We had angels watching over us.' Survivors of boat accident describe what happened

"Lucky to be alive." That's what 13 people who survived a boating accident on the Mississippi River said on Monday morning.

"Something happened in that turnaround. I don't know, we hit a wake, I don't know," Cathy Long said.

Goodhue County Sheriff Deputies say all 13 people on board were thrown into the river; some were thrown through the windshield after the driver tried to either stop or turn the boat at a high rate of speed. Authorities say alcohol was not a factor in the incident and luckily, no one was seriously injured.

"To be honest with you it happened so fast, I don't... I remember being in the air for a few seconds and after that it was just coming up from the water," Stacy Hallas recalls.

Hallas remembers seeing someone she didn't know pull her into a boat. 4 boats rushed to the scene to pull all 13 people out of the river. "They (witnesses) saw it happen, they said people were thrown 50 to 70 feet in the air," Sgt. Kris Johnson with the Goodhue Co. Sheriff's Office said.

"They were meant to be where they were, definitely they were meant to be where they were," Hallas explained.

11 of the 13 were sent to area hospitals after they were rushed to shore. Only 2 of the boats occupants were wearing life jackets; they were Hallas' children, ages 5 and 10.

"Chances of surviving an accident like that dramatically increase and we'd like to see everyone wearing their life jackets like those two kids were," Johnson remarked.

This morning, the family and friends reunited near the Lock and Dam where they were rescued. They spent the day recovering and soon they'll turn their attention to finding those "Good Samaritans" who rescued them.

"We had angels watching over us, we did. That's a miracle out there, we should not be alive," survivor Kristin Pruitt said.

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