Man saves the life of driver in submerged truck on live television during Hurricane Francine

By Web Staff

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    NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (WDSU) — A driver was saved from a fully submerged pickup Wednesday evening in New Orleans as Hurricane Francine prompted a flash flood emergency.

It happened around 8:45 p.m. at the Canal Street Underpass when a pickup drove around barricades and into extremely dangerous flood waters.

WDSU reporter Jonah Gilmore was filming a live shot when he spotted the truck going underwater and flagged down a nearby police officer.

A Good Samaritan, Miles Crawford, was also in the area and when Crawford figured out what was happening he ran back to his home, grabbed something to break the truck window and saved the man’s life.

Shortly after the rescue, Crawford spoke about his heroic actions with WDSU.

Crawford said his first inclination something was wrong came as he was watching the storm coverage on TV.

“I was just watching on TV, and I saw the cop car there, and I saw him back up, and I saw you with the red jacket. i was just kind of interested in what was going on.”

Crawford said he walked outside and then learned that a man was stuck in a submerged truck so he ran back home, grabbed a hammer and ran back.

Crawford said his background as an ER nurse helped him stay calm throughout the rescue. I’m used to high stress, high, high, you know, level of things on a daily basis,” he said.

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