By Brock Parker
The York Dispatch (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 York Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Two high school students braved rushing floodwater to save a young man from drowning in Hopewell Township yesterday.
The rescue was one of several in York County yesterday as surging storm water temporarily turned small creeks into raging rivers, and floodwaters forced the closure of almost two dozen county roads.
“I’ve never witnessed the force of water like that; it was unbelievable,” said Ira Walker, fire chief of the Eureka Volunteer Fire Co., which helped rescue two people trapped in floodwaters in Hopewell Township between 3:45 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. yesterday.
In the first rescue, at 3:45 p.m. on Hollow Road in Hopewell Township, a young man, who authorities did not name, was partially sucked into a water pipe amid strong floodwaters.
The man had been trying to warn an approaching school bus about the floodwaters when his legs were sucked into the water pipe. Walker said two teens, Lucas Vincent, 16, and Lee Greeley, 17, both students at Kennard-Dale High School, came to the young man’s rescue, wading into several feet of floodwater to hold the trapped man’s head up until more help could arrive.
“They, very bravely, went over to keep his head above water,” Walker said. “The water must have been close to 6 feet deep.”
Father, neighbor pitched in: Lucas Vincent’s father, Wayne Vincent, said he heard screams coming from the road, and he ran down with another neighbor to help try to save the man. The elder Vincent said the force of the water was so strong that it ripped all of the young man’s clothes off, and he couldn’t pull him out of the pipe.
Walker said that when firefighters arrived, the team of eight to 10 workers also struggled against the force of the water to pull him loose. Firefighters had to tie a rope around his waist and pull him to safety with a winch from tow-truck from Gordon’s Body Shop, Walker said.
The rescue took about 45 minutes, Walker said, and the young man was taken to York Hospital, where he was treated and released.
Man plucked from car: Minutes after the Hollow Road rescue, Eureka Volunteer firefighters rushed to Draco and Woolen Mill roads in Hopewell Township, where a small tributary swelled to the size of a small river and swept a compact car driven by a man off the road.
The driver, whose name was not available at press time, was forced to sit on the door of his car in order to keep his head above the floodwater that completely submerged his vehicle. Several branches and small trees were floating down the rushing water, and at one point the driver had to twist to his right to dodge a large branch that was headed right at his head.
Woolen Mill Road resident Howard Merkel said he witnessed the car being swept off the road by the floodwaters.
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” Merkel said of the flooded creek, which had completely covered at least a 40 to 50 foot stretch of road.
Firefighters backed a ladder truck to the edge of the raging water and stretched a ladder over the driver. Firefighters then lowered a doughnut-shaped flotation device to the driver and pulled him out of the water. One firefighter suffered a slight injury to his hand pulling the driver out of the car, Walker said.
Walker said the driver of the car did not appear to be injured, but was taken to York Hospital.
The force of the water from the storm-swelled creeks was beyond anything Walker said he or any of his firefighters had ever seen.
“I have new respect for that kind of force of Mother Nature,” Walker said.
Flooding elsewhere: Other communities also suffered severe flooding last night, including Chanceford Township where New Bridgeville Fire Department Chief Ronald Witmer said firefighters responded to 10853 Gum Tree Road to evacuate one family from floodwaters, but when the water receded the family decided to stay put.
Witmer said firefighters also responded to a home on Manor Furnace Road where floodwaters were threatening a grandmother and a 3-month-old baby. Witmer said the family did not have to be evacuated.
Firefighters also responded to severe flooding in Dover Township, Jackson Township and Lower Chanceford Township, where a vehicle also got stuck in floodwater.
Because at least 20 county roads were closed because of the floodwaters last night, state police issued a warning at 8 p.m. warning motorists to avoid driving in low areas and bridges.