Gr 9 Reading Level

1. Man rescued after 66 days adrift at sea
in his crippled boat
By Los Angeles Times, adapted by Newsela staff on 04.07.15
Word Count 865
Louis Jordan (right) walks from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia,
after being found off the North Carolina coast, April 2, 2015. He had spent 66 days at sea, adrift in his damaged boat.
Photo: AP Photo/The Virginian-Pilot, Steve Earley

2. Some people were sure Louis Jordan must have died.
Two months after he disappeared on a fishing trip off the coast of South Carolina, several
memorials had been held in his name.
His family had resolved not to think the unthinkable until he had been gone for at least four
months. However, even they had begun to frame photos of Jordan and his boat, hanging
them on a wall in his mother’s North Carolina home.
Maybe he would turn up, they thought as the weeks wore on, maybe they should wait at
least until Easter. His sister was heading to North Carolina from Texas to spend what they
expected would be a somber holiday with the family.
Capsized In Rough Weather
In the early morning hours of Good Friday, though, their prayers were answered: Their son,
weather-worn and 50 pounds thinner, walked out of a hospital and into his parents’ arms.
“A lot of us didn’t believe we’d see this day,” said Glen Davis, Jordan’s stepfather.
Jordan, 37, was spotted and rescued Thursday afternoon from his crippled boat, a 35-foot
fishing vessel named Angel, about 200 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. He was
airlifted to a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, Thursday evening with a shoulder injury and
dehydration, but refused treatment and left with his parents around 2 a.m. Friday.

3. Jordan left on a fishing trip from South Carolina in January, but a couple days into the trip,
his boat capsized when he was caught in some rough weather. The capsizing left him with
a broken shoulder.
“I was flying through the air, somersaulting, and everything was upside down and
backwards,” he said on Friday.
His boat’s mast was broken and its electronics damaged. Following that incident, his boat
capsized at least two more times.
"Doing A Lot Of Bailing"
Jordan had to drain the water from the boat.
“He was doing a lot of bailing in order to keep the boat up,” Davis said.
Jordan survived on some limited food on board: flour pancakes fried on a propane stove
and raw fish he caught with a hand net, Davis said. He rationed his food and water,
drinking just a pint a day for long stretches, and collected rainwater.
“For such a long time I was so thirsty,” he said early Friday. “And I was almost out of water,
and every day I was like, ‘Please God, send me some rain, send me some water.' And
finally, right before I ran out of water, finally the conditions were perfect.”
He read the Bible repeatedly, cover to cover, he told rescuers, and a blanket from his
vessel protected him from the elements.
Meanwhile, at home, his parents became more and more worried.
It was not uncommon for Jordan to embark on grand adventures and not call his family for
days or even weeks. The family became concerned, however, after a few cold winter
weeks passed, as did his mother’s birthday, without a word from him. They looked at
Jordan’s bank statements to see if he had landed somewhere unnoticed, but found he had
not taken any money out of his account since January.
Rescued By A Cargo Ship
They headed up and down the coast, passing out fliers with Jordan’s photo.
“As time went on, it got more and more hard to think he was out there and he’d survived,
especially some of those cold nights,” said Davis.
They began to monitor a list of bodies that washed ashore in North Carolina.
“His mother just said, ‘I just need a sign, I need something physical,’” Davis said.
On Thursday, as they sat doing their taxes, they received a text from Jordan's father:
Jordan had been found alive.

4. The Coast Guard got word about 1:30 p.m. Thursday that he had been picked up by a
cargo ship, the Houston Express. “They saw me on the front of my boat, standing up there
waving my arms, and they turned that huge skyscraper around,” Jordan said Friday.
“I got down onto the deck, and he walked right up to me,” said Kyle McCollum, a rescue
swimmer for the Coast Guard, who hoisted Jordan off the ship. “He had this nice smile on
his face and I could tell he was in good spirits.”
A Bible And A Blanket
In the helicopter, Jordan pulled out two of the things that he said had kept him going: the
Bible, battered and jacket-less, and a blanket that had shielded him from the sun.
“As soon as we crossed over land, you could see a large smirk on his face. He was
definitely eager to get out of the aircraft,” McCollum said.
“I haven’t heard you in so long,” Jordan told his father. “I was afraid that you guys were
crying and sad that, you know, I was dead, and I wasn’t dead."
“We were,” the elder Jordan replied. “I thought I lost you.”
Back at home in North Carolina on Friday, his stepfather said Jordan was looking forward
to seeing family and eating barbecue and strawberry ice cream again.
“The last couple weeks really weighed heavy on us,” Davis said. “Now we’re going to have
a great Easter.”

5. Quiz
1 What about Jordan's rescue might have been unexpected?
(A) his beat up boat
(B) his overall high spirits
(C) his poor condition and injury
(D) his happiness to see his family
2 Based on Jordan's depiction of his time at sea, which of the following was MOST important for
Jordan?
(A) Getting food to eat by fishing.
(B) Getting fresh water to drink from rain.
(C) Getting medical care from his first-aid kit.
(D) Repairing his boat from all the damage.
3 Which detail is included in the graphic to the right of the first two paragraphs but NOT in the
article?
(A) the shape of the shoreline near where he was found
(B) the location in which Jordan was found
(C) the country his rescuers came from
(D) the distance from shore where Jordan was found
4 Which detail is emphasized in the portrayal of Jordan's situation in the graphic to the right of
paragraphs 1 and 2?
(A) Jordan's time at sea
(B) Jordan's rescue location
(C) Jordan's survival techniques
(D) Jordan's distance from home