Jack and Carol Batchelor grew up in Springfield and lived in Cottage Grove before moving to Samoa to run an island resort.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - They saw death and devastation and their life savings wiped away by a "wall of white," as Jack Batchelor described it. But nothing short of a supernatural act, he and his wife, Carol, said, could explain why they survived while others did not.

"It was just truly a miracle," Carol Batchelor said earlier this week.

The couple returned home to the Eugene-Springfield area a week ago for a two-week respite and to spend Thanksgiving with family after living through the 8.3-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Samoa on Sept. 29.

The Batchelors moved there earlier this year after going into a partnership on a beach resort called Lupe Sina on the south side of the island of Upola, which took the brunt of the tsunami that killed about 170.

The resort property, which was not insured, was a total loss, the couple said. The Batchelors said they had invested about $700,000 into renovating the resort, which consisted of a restaurant and eight beachfront bungalows. Since mid-October, they have been staying with a couple in Apia, Samoa's capital city, on the north side of the island.

"Right now we're homeless and penniless," said Carol Batchelor, 48, sitting in the dining room of the Eugene home of her mother-in-law, Opal Batchelor, near Interstate 5 and Highway 58. Spread out on the table were photographs of the devastation in Samoa.

Despite their losses, the couple are grateful for the support they have received from family, friends and strangers in Lane County. Carol Batchelor's sister, Henrietta Revell, organized a community care package in early October that included medical supplies from the Santa Clara Medical Center, where Revell is the administrator, and $500 worth of food donated by Eugene-based Market of Choice. UPS also waived the shipping fee.

A fund established at Northwest Community Credit Union has brought in about $3,000 in donations.

"That was so needed," Carol Batchelor said. "And we got it to the right people. That was a blessing. I want people to know how much we appreciate what they've done."

The Batchelors spent the first two weeks after the disaster helping the villagers who had retreated to the plantations in the hills above their resort. They are still in desperate need of medical supplies and shelter, the Batchelors said. Most are living under tarps where their homes once stood and have no power or running water.

American Red Cross workers are still there but will be leaving at the end of the month, Carol Batchelor said.

The Batchelors, who still own a home in Cottage Grove, bought other property in the middle of Upola before the tsunami and still hope to build a home and a bed-and-breakfast there. But now they have no money to do so, they said.

Unlike four of their former employees at Lupe Sina, as well as many neighbors, they do have their lives.

Jack Batchelor, 50, who graduated from Springfield High School in 1977, two years before his wife, was hailed on the island for his bravery. A headline in the Oct. 2 Samoa Observer read, "Man saves baby in heroic rescue."

Jack Batchelor had told his wife to run for the hills from one of the bungalows they were in that day after the earthquake struck, fearing a tsunami was imminent when the ocean had rapidly receded a mile, leaving fish flopping on the reef.

In the minutes-long lull before the tsunami swept in, Batchelor, a former Lane County homebuilder, ran to his neighbor, a 38-year-old man named Kenny, to try and help him. Kenny didn't survive, his body washing ashore in debris a week later, nor did most of his family.

Batchelor, however, was able to scoop up Kenny's toddler son along with another small child. The latter did not make it, swept from Batchelor's arms when waves as high as 25 feet hit them, but Kenny's son was saved when Jack threw him on some rocks as he fought for his own life under 5 feet of water.

"God, I don't want to die like this," Batchelor recalls thinking while holding his breath. And then the water receded, he said. "I know there was a (higher) power there," he said. "I know there was."

Carol Batchelor, a former Eugene-area banking executive, still cannot believe that the waves missed her almost entirely, even though buildings on either side of her were destroyed. "You don't know why some people live and some people die," she said. "Our story is really one of Thanksgiving."

- Information from: The Register-Guard