A Florida reporter is being hailed as a hero after he rescued a woman who was stuck in her car after attempting to drive through flood waters during Hurricane Ian on Sept. 29. The woman turned out to be a nurse. She was on her way to work early in the morning when she got stuck in the flood waters on Orange Avenue in Orlando.
Reporter Tony Atkins and his crew had been at the intersection when they noticed the woman waving and asking them for help. They were aware of how deep the water was, and Atkins made his way over to the woman in her car. The woman held onto Atkins until the water was as high as their ankles and it was safe for her to walk on her own.
In the video, you can see Atkins near the car in a red raincoat and holding the woman’s bag as she climbed onto his back to avoid the water.
WESH TV reporter Tony Atkins rescued a woman who was trying to drive through floodwaters in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday morning. The woman says she is a nurse and was on her way to work when she got stuck. https://t.co/o7TZRb0cvk pic.twitter.com/eeLcIUKpay
— CNBC (@CNBC) September 29, 2022
After the incident, Atkins shared a video on Twitter of himself taking off his rain boot and throwing out all of the water that accumulated inside of it.
Hurricane Ian, which was downgraded to a tropical storm Thursday morning, has left more than 2.5 million people without power.
When it hit Florida’s southwest coast on Sept. 28, it was considered a major Category 4 hurricane. However, its winds have since dropped to nearly 65 mph as it makes its way north toward Georgia from Florida’s east-central coast. In the wake of the devastation, President Joe Biden declared that an emergency exists in Florida and has ordered federal aid to “supplement state, tribal and local response efforts,” according to a statement.
