A man swam half a mile through floodwaters from Hurricane Ian to rescue his mother, a woman from 49 years using a wheelchair and who was trapped at home.
Johnny Lauder, from 49 years, came to Karen Lauder’s home in Naples, Florida, along with her son Xavier. They found her alive, but terrified and with water up to her neck and her belongings floating around her, the man told Inside Edition.
“I put her up on a wrapped table so she wouldn’t get into hypothermia,” Johnny said in a video of the ordeal.
They then had to push Karen in her wheelchair through the flood waters to take her to a hospital.
“I took a picture to make sure the family knew that Grandma was safe. I’ve never seen her happier to see me,” John told the outlet.
“It was pretty bad. He knew he didn’t have much time, because the water kept rising faster. If I had come any later, she wouldn’t be here,” John continued.
And as the days go by and the cleanup of the destruction Hurricane Ian left in its wake begins, more stories of heroics in Florida.
Stories of rescues after the passage of Hurricane Ian
For example, the Australian cameraman Glen Ellis left his equipment abandoned in the torrential rain of the hurricane Ian in Florida to rescue a family that was struggling to get out of the water alive.
Ellis, who works for Seven Network Australia, broadcast the incidents live with reporter Tim Lester when he spotted the emergency .
Members of a family were trying to escape the flood in Naples when Ellis and Lester were doing a broadcast for 7NEWS.
In another story captured on video, a man saved a frightened cat, which was stranded on the side of a house in Naples, Florida, in the midst of the dangerous currents caused by the arrival of Hurricane Ian.
In the footage uploaded to Twitter, the woman who filmed the images wrote: “My boyfriend saving a cat from the floods near Playa Bonita”, in a video that already exceeds a million views.
“In the event of any emergency or evacuation, never forget to take your pets with you, they are part of the family too!” added a person who shared the rescue tweet in Bonita Beach.
Also read:
· Number of deaths in the entire Florida after the passage of Hurricane Ian is around the 100 after recent report
· Video shows when Hurricane Ian rips out an entire house in Fort Myers, Florida, before the waters “swallow” it