An ER nurse says it was ‘second nature’ to rescue a man trapped in hurricane floodwaters

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Maybe it was destiny {that a} man’s pickup truck bought trapped in rising floodwaters unleashed by Hurricane Francine not removed from the place Miles Crawford lives.

The 39-year-old off-duty emergency room nurse is professionally skilled in saving lives — rapidly — and that’s precisely what he did the second he noticed what was occurring Wednesday night time in his New Orleans neighborhood.

Crawford grabbed a hammer from his home and ran to the underpass the place the truck was caught, wading via swirling waist-high water to achieve the motive force. When he bought there, he noticed that the water was already as much as the person’s head. There was no time to waste.

He advised the motive force to maneuver to the again of the truck’s cab because the entrance finish of the pickup was angled down in deeper water. Gripping the hammer, he smashed out the again window and hauled the person out, at one level grabbing him simply as he started to fall into the dashing water.

“It was type of instinctive,” Crawford advised The Related Press. “Didn’t take a lot to interrupt the window and pull the man out.”

About 10 minutes later, the pickup was absolutely submerged.

Crawford, an ER nurse at College Medical Middle, stated he bought out of the water as quickly as the person was secure and by no means did get his identify. Crawford lower his hand within the rescue — a TV station that filmed it confirmed him carrying a big bandage — however that was not an enormous deal for somebody used to trauma.

“It’s simply second nature, I assume, being a nurse, you simply go in and get it accomplished, proper?” Crawford stated. “I simply needed to get him out of there.” ___

Related Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Lisa J. Adams Wagner in Evans, Georgia, contributed to this report.