- Floodwaters caused by
Hurricane Ida tore through aNew Jersey basement on Thursday. - Security camera footage captured the terrifying moment, which trapped Janice Valle and her son.
- Valle told local media her son narrowly missed the wall and "thought he was going to die."
Security camera footage caught the terrifying moment floodwaters caused by Hurricane Ida tore through a New Jersey basement, trapping and nearly drowning a mother and her son.
Janice Valle's home in Cranford, New Jersey started
In the video, first shared by NBC New York, Valle's son can be seen walking across the already flooded basement seconds before one of the walls gives way.
The footage shows a wave of murky water raging in and quickly filling the room as Valle, who is in a separate part of the basement, starts screaming.
Watch the moment below:
-Steven Bognar (@Bogs4NY) September 3, 2021
"My son called his father to say goodbye to him, he thought he was going to die," Valle told NBC on Friday.
"Thank god [my son] made it to the stairs because the wall caved in and the water came in and would have crushed him," she added.
Valle's son got trapped between two beams, but "lost his sense of where he was," their father, Marlon Valle, told NBC.
Fearful that he wouldn't be able to breathe, the son punched a hole in the ceiling. Meanwhile, his dad and other brother smashed out a window with an umbrella and were able to pull him out of the basement.
Valle remained trapped at the other end of the basement but heard her husband telling her: "Janice, you have to come here and open the window so I can pull you out," according to NBC.
She managed to escape, but the entire family has been left rattled by the experience.
"We're definitely going to live differently, enjoying everything. Every day is precious," Valle said.
At least 25 people died in New Jersey, and six people were still missing, a representative for New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said, according to The Wall Street Journal.