Haiti earthquake: Key to one rescue from the rubble? Fruit Roll-ups.

Last night, three of the people I wrote about in a story on last-ditch rescue efforts were freed from the under rubble of a supermarket after being trapped there for nearly three days.

Firefighters from FEMA Southern Florida task force work to rescue up to five people believed to be alive in the wreckage of El Caribe market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, January 16, 2009.

Mary Knox Merrill / The Christian Science Monitor

January 17, 2010

Amid the tragedy unfolding in the streets of Port-au-Prince, there are glimmers of hope. And some good news.

Last night, three of the people I wrote about in a story on last-ditch rescue efforts were freed from the under rubble of a supermarket after being trapped there for nearly three days.

The teenager mentioned in the article, Ariel, and the man who they had been talking to were rescued alive last night along with another woman.

They thought they were going to die. But they're all fine, with only minor injuries.

The rescue crew from South Florida located them, because they told the rescuers that they were surrounded by Fruit Roll-ups. The rescuers then looked at previous photos of the store to pinpoint their location based on that information, says Joe Zahralban, the head rescuer.

Now they have made contact with two more people.

"Who would have thought we would come to a structure like this and get five survivors?" says Mr. Zabralban. "If we can turn five to ten, we will do everything we can."