Caught on camera: People formed human chain to rescue man from SUV stuck in fast-flowing flood waters
Incredible footage shows residents of storm-hit Houston, Texas forming a human chain to rescue a man trapped in his SUV. The elderly man, who was successfully pulled from the sinking vehicle, ended up getting trapped after his SUV was swept away by rising flood waters. Texas has seen "catastrophic" amounts of rain and subsequent flooding after Tropical Storm Harvey hit over the weekend.
An eyewitness told
CNN what happened when flood waters swept away the elderly man's SUV on Tuesday.
Maritza Castillo, her husband and and dozens of other drivers who were stuck in traffic on the "submerged" Interstate-10 in Houston rushed to help immediately.
But, they had no ropes. "Somebody said, 'Let's form a chain,'" Ms Castillo told CNN. And so, that's exactly what they did.
Another eyewitness, Stephanie Edward Mata, was on the other side of the flooded road filming the daring rescue.
"The people had no rope to get him out so they made a chain holding each other," she told
Mashable.
Arms linked, they inched slowly towards the vehicle in the fast-flowing water.
"They pulled the door open and one gentleman got ahold of him as they held on until they got him safe," Ms Mata explained.
According to Ms Castillo, the man was taken to a local hospital.
Watch how the dramatic rescue unfolded below:ABC 13 Houston posted a heartwarming photo of the rescue on Twitter, writing: "#Harvey has taken a lot, but it will NEVER take our humanity. We have seen so many neighbors helping each other. THANK YOU #HopeForHouston."
And Twitter was all praise for the good Samaritans:
Hurricane Harvey made landfall during the weekend as a monster Category Four hurricane and later weakened to a tropical storm. The rain has led to severe flooding in parts of the state and left large parts of Houston - America's fourth largest city - underwater.
On Wednesday,
a dramatic video posted on Facebook by the United States Coast Guard showed how a mother and her child were airlifted to safety from rising flood waters.Click for more
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