That was the case for Steve Campion who rescued a driver who was stranded in the torrential rain waters that flooded Houston on Monday morning.
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KTRK reporter Steve Campion was just about to broadcast live from a flooded bridge in the city when he saw the motorist, later identified as Andy, drive straight into the water.
The man opened the door to his Honda hatchback and Campion yelled at the man to get out of the auto.
“I didn’t think the water was that deep”, the man told Campion.
“Dude, you’ve got to get out of the auto”. He tried to go back to his auto, but Campion stopped him. “And you were kind enough to say swim and that’s what I did”, the man said. Thankfully, Campion was able to convince the man to leave the auto and swim to safety. The rescue was shown on live TV.
Storms have dumped more than a foot of rain in the Houston area, flooding dozens of neighborhoods and forcing the closure of city offices and the suspension of public transit.
Flash flood watches have been issued through Tuesday morning for Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Tyler-Longview and as far east as Texarkana. The next highest percentage of flood-related deaths is due to walking into or near flood waters.
Strong winds and hail have also been reported, and power has been cut off from thousands of homes, affecting more than 121,000 people, according to CenterPoint. Of these drownings, many are preventable, but too many people continue to drive around the barriers that warn you the road is flooded.
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Southeast Texas was inundated with rain pouring down at a rate of as much as 4 inches per hour, according to the Weather Channel.
