INTERNATIONAL – A heroic act. A driver was rescued by a stranger from a completely submerged van on Wednesday evening, September 11, in New Orleans, as Hurricane Francine caused flash floods in Louisiana. This miraculous rescue was filmed in its entirety by local television.
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Around 9 p.m., a WDSU-TV news crew, who had come to film footage of the storm-battered city, saw a pickup truck go off the road, around a barricade and into the water.
The “hero” is a nurse
As the minutes passed, the vehicle sank deeper, and the water quickly reached the hood. Faced with this dramatic situation unfolding before their eyes, the journalists then tried to call a police officer who was nearby, the American station reports. In vain.
After a few minutes, a man appeared in front of their camera, as you can see in the video below. The latter then broke the window of the truck and pulled the driver out of the cabin. “I see the person slipping out of the car, that’s it, he’s outside. It’s a man who was stuck in this car, we can see him,” describe the reporters on air. Risking his life to save that of a stranger, the “hero” then carried the driver on his back to swim him out of the water.
Moments later, New Orleans police officers and a firefighter took the two men to safety.
In a later interview with WDSU-TV, the rescuer identified himself as Miles Crawford, a nurse at University Medical Center in New Orleans. He said the decision to save the man’s life was an easy one: ” We [personnel médical] “We do this every day.”
370,000 people without electricity
Hurricane Francine, a Category 2 on a scale of 5, downgraded to a tropical storm on Thursday, caused significant flooding in the southeastern United States, as you can see in the videos below. Some Americans even travel by kayak through the streets.
More than 370,000 people are currently without power in Louisiana, according to a website that tracks outages.
President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in the state on Tuesday, a move that frees up federal funds to help local authorities. Schools and universities around the Louisiana capital, Baton Rouge, decided to close Friday.
The Texas coast and parts of Mississippi are also expected to be affected, but to a lesser extent. Francine, which is expected to rapidly lose strength, will then head towards the northern United States.
The North Atlantic hurricane season has already been marked by three hurricanes, including Beryl and Debby, which have caused several dozen deaths.
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