- Florida authorities released footage showing a deputy getting sucked into a drainage pipe during a flood rescue.
- The footage shows the deputy being submerged in rushing water for about 30 seconds before resurfacing.
A Florida sheriff's deputy attempted a daring rescue of a motorist who stranded in a torrential downpour, and his body camera footage captured the moment he got sucked into a drainage pipe and carried 100 feet before resurfacing.
The video from Escambria County Deputy William Hollingsworth's camera was published Saturday, and shows Hollingsworth exiting his vehicle and heading over to what appeared to be a car stuck in rising waters.
Suddenly, the camera's lens submerges beneath the water, and over 30 seconds elapses with nothing but a black screen and the sound of rushing water.
Eventually Hollingsworth rises out of the water and goes to assist a man lying on the grass, panting, having just escaped the same drainage pipe.
"Can you f--ing believe what just happened to us?" Hollingsworth asks the man. "Just breathe, brother. Oh my god, thank you Jesus."
The Escambria County Sheriff's Office praised Hollingsworth's "exceptional courage" in a public statement on Saturday, and said both Hollingsworth and the man were lucky to be alive.
Hollingsworth and the man were both swept 100 feet, underneath the four-lane roadway of Highway 98, before being spat out on the other side.
"Deputy Hollingsworth witnessed the citizen go underwater and rushed to his aid without regard for his own safety," the statement said.
Hollingsworth's body camera footage also captured him describing the incident to his colleagues afterwards.
"He was over there, and I was having him come across, and he goes down. And I go in after him. I got sucked in," Hollingsworth said.
The man could be seen profusely thanking Hollingsworth for risking his life to help him.
"Thank you for being there when I came up. When I came out, you were right behind me," he told Hollingsworth. "You and me, man. We've got this experience for life, and I appreciate you, brother."