Wild bodycam footage captured the second a Florida cop was sucked right into a storm drain and dragged roughly 100 ft utterly submerged Friday after making an attempt to assist one other man who was pulled underneath.
“I virtually died!” the person shouted after he and the deputy have been shot out on the opposite finish of the Pensacola roadway after 30 seconds underwater.
Escambia County Deputy William Hollingsworth was making an attempt to assist a motorist stranded by torrential rainfall and flooding cross Route 98 when he watched him disappear underneath the tough waves, the gripping video reveals.
The space had been struggling extreme climate and torrential downpours as a collection of thunderstorms and tornados swept by way of the panhandle, Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons stated.
Hollingsworth stepped into the water to rescue the person — recognized solely as David — when he was dragged into the drainage pipe and swept beneath the four-lane roadway.
The chaotic footage turns black and it’s audio is overpowered by speeding water for roughly 30 seconds — the time Hollingsworth was submerged earlier than being spat out on the opposite facet of the interstate the place the drainage pipe had an outlet.
“I received you! Oh man, I received you!” Hollingsworth could be heard saying after resurfacing on the opposite finish of the freeway.
WATCH: An Escambia County deputy put his life on the road to save lots of a person from Thursday evening's heavy flooding, the place at one level the person and himself have been sucked down a drainage pipe and submerged underwater for over 30 seconds. — https://t.co/Qps45DkCeH pic.twitter.com/z3B2fHeSqJ
— WEAR ABC 3 (@weartv) June 16, 2023
The Florida deputy ran towards David, who was mendacity on the bottom in shock.
“David, are you able to imagine what simply occurred to us?” Hollingsworth stated in disbelief. “Oh, my God. Thank you, Jesus.”
After a number of seconds, David shouts again: “I virtually died!”
“It received me too, buddy. It sucked me in,” Hollingsworth responds.
The two dumbfounded males agreed that neither of them had ever held their breath so effectively “of their life” and embraced in a hug that shortly devolved into tears for David.
“I’m alive!” David shouted.
Hollingsworth then suggested the person to not transfer from their spot till backup arrived as a result of he didn’t “need to get sucked down once more.”
Hollingsworth apologized to David, claiming he felt responsible for advising the person to cross the flood when he was dragged underneath.
David, nonetheless, was solely grateful to the deputy for his courageous try at rescue that put his personal life on the road.
“When I got here out, you have been proper there,” he tells Hollingsworth.
Hand-in-hand, the 2 males then walked again onto the roadway and to security.
Sheriff Simmons applauded Hollingsworth and stated the footage is an instance of the “distinctive braveness displayed by the women and men of regulation enforcement day by day.”
