Aug. 04--HIGH POINT -- Emergency personnel staged a dramatic rescue early Friday evening in front of High Point Regional Hospital.
They pulled a man from his flooded car and after briefly checking on him on higher ground, they carried him straight into the emergency room.
At approximately 6:45 p.m., what appeared to be a Chrysler Sebring convertible became nearly submerged in high flood waters on N. Elm Street, between Westwood and W. Ray avenues. Members of the High Point fire and police departments and Emergency Medical Services soon responded and began rescue.
They removed a man from the passenger side of the car, which was pointed south. Waters were moving so swiftly that a firefighter from Station 1 tied a rope around his waist, and a police officer manned the end of the tether. A woman in the car got out, but it is unclear if she escaped on her own or also was rescued.
The woman was taking the man to the hospital for treatment, according to the High Point Police Department. The names of the man and woman were not available Friday night.
Rescuers carried the man, who was unresponsive, the few hundred feet to the Emergency Room entrance. According to fire department personnel, the man was alive when they delivered him to the hospital.
Heavy rains began in central High Point at 6 p.m., and streets soon began flooding. N. Main Street near downtown was only passable in the center lanes.
N. Elm Street immediately in front of the hospital was one of the most severely flooded areas. Storm-water drainage there long has been a problem, and the city has done work to improve drainage there.
The line of heavy rain moved into the southern Triad from the west and lingered immediately over High Point and the Thomasville area before it moved northeast.
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