A Good Samaritan waded through floodwaters beneath the Canal Street underpass in Lakeview on Wednesday evening and rescued a man whose car was almost completely submerged.
The dramatic rescue was filmed by a WDSU-TV news crew just before 9 p.m. as Hurricane Francine soaked the metropolitan area. Reporter Jonah Gilmore and a cameraman saw a pickup truck drive around a barrier and enter the water until the water reached the hood of the truck.
The truck then appeared to drift further into the water while the WDSU crew attempted to get the attention of a nearby police officer. After several minutes, a passerby waded into the water, broke the truck’s window, pulled the driver out, and got him out of the water.
“You have to save lives, right?” said the man who introduced himself as Miles Crawford.
Moments later, officers from the New Orleans Police Department and a firefighter escorted the two men away.
In a later interview, Crawford, a nurse at University Medical Center, said the decision to save the man’s life was an easy one.
He said he found something to break the window with, grabbed his boots and waded into the water. He said the man tried to gather his things, but Crawford told him he didn’t have time.
“We do this every day,” he thought later. “I guess it’s a big deal, but it’s nothing unusual, so to speak.”
The rescue operation took place when several underpasses and streets in the greater New Orleans area were flooded by the heavy rains of Hurricane Francine.
WWL Chief Meteorologist Chris Franklin said the storm lost intensity after Francine moved ashore, and then heavy rainbands that formed the eyewall settled over the urban area, dumping several inches of rain in a short period of time. Power outages were reported throughout the city and state.
Meteorologists reported that 6 of the 8 inches that had fallen by about 10 p.m. had fallen in just three hours.
In an interview with WDSU after the rescue, Colin Arnold, the city’s director of homeland security and emergency preparedness, called such incidents “frustrating and at the same time infuriating.”
Arnold noted that 6 inches of water is enough to keep a vehicle afloat. He warned residents that the need to be cautious will continue well into Thursday.
“It’s not the storm, it’s the aftermath,” he said, noting that improper use of generators, downed power lines and other risks can cost lives. “It’s these things that actually cost lives.”
“We are in an extremely dangerous flood situation,” Jefferson Parish Councilman Scott Walker said on social media. “Do not go out on the streets unless absolutely necessary. The canals are overflowing and there is widespread flooding on the streets.”
