The quick response of a TV reporter may well have saved a man’s life yesterday.
Brandi Smith, reporter for Houston, Texas-based KHOU 11 News, was covering the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Harvey, which has caused intense flooding and untold amounts of damage, displacing thousands of people and causing at least five deaths so far.
Smith was on a bridge overlooking a flooded part of the freeway, where a truck had been overcome with floodwater. She flagged down two passing sheriff’s deputies, asking if they were on their way to help the truck driver.
It becomes clear that they weren’t aware of the situation: “There’s a truck driver stuck here in about 10 feet of water,” Smith says.
Incredible, watch as @BrandiKHOU flags down a rescue boat on-air, saving this truck driver's life https://t.co/EVvNbdt13k pic.twitter.com/3mYi9McniB
— Hayley Jones (@hayleycjones) August 27, 2017
In a longer video, we can see the deputies deploying a boat moments later, rescuing the truck driver from his flooding cabin. “Incredible kudos to these two sheriff’s deputies who are risking their lives in this deep water,” Smith comments.
Freeing the driver through his window, the deputies bring the man, identified only as Robert, back to dry land.
https://twitter.com/JMKTV/status/901842756829679616
All praise to the two deputies who have no doubt been working tirelessly to rescue people in similarly dire situations across Houston, but praise also to the quick-thinking Brandi Smith, without whom this situation may not have ended so happily.
