NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It seemed almost meant to be when a man’s pickup truck became stuck in the rising floodwaters caused by Hurricane Francine, just a short distance from the home of Miles Crawford.
Crawford, a 39-year-old emergency room nurse who is trained to respond quickly to emergencies, sprang into action as soon as he noticed the situation in his New Orleans neighborhood on Wednesday night.
Without hesitation, he grabbed a hammer from his house and made his way toward the underpass where the truck was trapped, navigating through the fast-moving water that reached up to his waist. When he reached the vehicle, he found that the water had already risen nearly to the man’s head, leaving no time to lose.
He instructed the driver to move to the back of the truck’s cab since the front was submerged in deeper water. With the hammer in hand, he broke the back window and pulled the driver to safety, managing to save him just as he began to slip into the rushing flood.
“It was really just instinct,” Crawford shared with The Associated Press. “Breaking the window and getting the guy out didn’t take much effort.”
Within about ten minutes, the pickup was completely under water.
After ensuring the driver was safe, Crawford exited the water, not even knowing the man’s name. He had cut his hand during the rescue, and a local TV station that filmed the incident showed him with a sizable bandage; however, for someone accustomed to dealing with trauma, it was just a minor issue.
“It comes naturally, being a nurse. You just jump in and do what needs to be done,” Crawford explained. “I just had to get him out of there.”
Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Lisa J. Adams Wagner in Evans, Georgia, contributed to this report.
