Watch Houston FFs Pull Man from Fast-Moving Waters
By Jay R. Jordan and Julian Gill
Source Houston Chronicle
Houston firefighters rescued a man who was stranded in high water Monday morning in Brays Bayou underneath Texas Highway 288 on the city's southside.
Terry Lewis Hill, 55, told Chron.com that he lived underneath the bridge along Brays Bayou near North MacGregor Way, and was caught in swift water as a storm blew through Houston on Monday morning. Hill crafted a raft of sorts in which he kept all of his possessions and was attempting to tie it to the guardrail along a jogging path underneath the bridge when the water overtook him, he said.
Hill was spotted struggling in the water by the Texas Department of Transportation on a camera, and called the Houston Fire Department around 7:20 a.m., according to Houston Fire Department District Chief James Watson.
Firefighters pleaded with Hill to let them assist him out of the water safely, but Hill repeatedly refused help. Firefighters threw ropes from the side of the bayou to the guardrail where Hill was stuck hoping he'd pull himself across with firefighters' help, but he insisted on staying with his raft.
It ultimately took two firefighters to enter the water and convince Hill to heed their advice and come to safety.
"I really wasn't stuck," Hill said after firefighters pulled him from the water. "I would've managed."
Hill's raft was swept away in the floodwaters.
"He was trying to protect everything he had," Watson said. "Ultimately, the most important thing is his life.
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