When Hurricane Francine swept through southeast Louisiana, authorities urged residents to look out for one another — and a local emergency room nurse put that advice into action by using a hammer to save the life of a motorist caught in the floodwaters.
New Orleans-based NBC affiliate WDSU broadcast the rescue by Miles Crawford live on television. It was one of the most dramatic moments after the Category 2 storm, which caused widespread power outages along the Gulf Coast and inland, among other places.
“I just had to go in there and do it – I’m a nurse, so I have to save lives, right?” Crawford told the station as he emerged from the floodwaters.
Crawford was drawn into the extraordinary circumstances after looking out of his home in New Orleans’ Lakeview neighborhood and seeing wind and rain whipping past Francine. First, he noticed a police officer near a railroad underpass that is constantly flooding, and then he received a text message from his brother saying someone had gotten stuck after driving into the water beneath the overpass, he told the Times-Picayune newspaper.
That information prompted Crawford to contact both police and a WDSU reporter on the scene to ask if he could help. He said he had medical supplies with him. And as the front of the driver’s truck quickly sank, Crawford ran back to his house, grabbed a hammer and returned to the vehicle wearing a gray hooded rain jacket.
He immediately used the hammer to smash the rear driver’s window of the truck while leaning his weight on the bed of the vehicle. After a few seconds, the driver stuck his head through the window and Crawford grabbed the driver by his jacket to free him from the vehicle.
The driver fell headfirst into the flash flood at one point, but Crawford pulled him back above the water’s surface. Crawford was literally up to his neck in floodwater at this point. However, he and the motorist were able to get to safety by holding onto a nearby railing while police and firefighters approached the two men to rescue Crawford.
In a statement to the Guardian, New Orleans police said the driver drove against the direction of traffic and ended up under the flooded railroad trusses despite marked patrol cars, barricades and signs warning passersby of the high water levels.
Emergency responders took the driver to a local hospital for examination, where he suffered no injuries, the police statement said, specifically mentioning Crawford’s “tremendous bravery.”
The entire incident prompted police to issue renewed warnings about the importance of obeying traffic laws and staying safe in dangerous weather, while Crawford was hailed as a hero as footage of his bravery went viral among those following Francine’s belongings.
Crawford told WDSU that his previous work as a nurse at University Medical Center in New Orleans, which often treats some of the region’s most seriously injured trauma patients, made him “accustomed to high levels of stress on a daily basis.”
He told the Times-Picayune that he is currently participating in a mental health care program – and in comparison, smashing the window of a submerged truck did not seem as bad as it turned out to be.
“Honestly, it’s easy compared to what I do on a daily basis,” Crawford said.
Francine triggered flash flooding along the coast and inland and left hundreds of thousands without power after it crashed ashore about 30 miles southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, on Wednesday evening. There were no deaths or injuries in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
