This is the the moment that a TV news crew stopped telling the news and started making it – saving a man’s life in the process.
Brandi Smith was reporting for KHOU II on the Houston beltway when she looked down and saw a tractor-trailer already up to its windshield in the still-rising murky brown waters.
Worse, there was a man stuck inside.
At that moment, Smith stopped being a reporter – and became a hero, KHOU 11’s video shows.
Hero: Brandi Smith (left) turned from KHOU 11 news anchor to on-scene hero when she saved a trapped driver. She was reporting from the Houston beltway when she spotted the truck (right)
In danger: The driver (pictured later, after cops reached him) was up to his shoulders in flood water – and it was still rising. His possessions could be seen floating around him
Running into the road, she flagged down a Harris County Sheriff’s Office truck that was towing a boat past.
‘Are you guys going down to the truck that’s right here?’ she asked. They weren’t – until she said that.
‘There’s a truck here that’s stuck in about 10 feet of water,’ she explained, guiding them to the edge of the bridge.
There, the stricken vehicle could be seen, stopped on a downward ramp heading towards a near-totally-submerged bridge.
The cop saw the man, then said, ruefully: ‘This is the same location we had an 18-wheeler go under the bridge, and he died last year. Same place, except it was on the other side of the freeway.’
And so, as the police began guiding the life-saving craft down the freeway’s exit ramp – now a boat ramp into the murky water – Smith shouted out at the driver not to panic.
The man – who was already up to his elbows in water, with a book and other objects floating around, shouted the affirmative.
Getting help: Smith flagged down a cop and told him where the driver was – thankfully he was towing a boat. The cop said a man had drowned on that same underpass the previous year
The bridge that the truck had been heading towards was almost completely submerged under 16 feet of water, Smith noted.
‘This water, folks, it’s rising,’ she said, ‘…you can see water filling [the cab].’
Shortly after, the footage cut out.
A tweet from the KHOU 11 offices would later reveal why: Water had flooded in and drowned their equipment.
Rescued: The cops used the partially submerged off-ramp as a boat ramp and sent the craft in to rescue the driver (left). Once safe (right), the driver said he was grateful for the assistance
But Smith kept going, and recorded the dramatic moment that the police came racing to the driver’s aid, hauling him out of the cab and into the boat.
Soon he was standing on the freeway, where Smith went to interview him.
‘How does it feel to be on land?’ she asked.
‘Wonderful, wonderful!’ he chuckled, before saying that while in the water he could only think: ‘Lord help me, get me out of here safely.’
‘I just thank God that you guys was right here to get me, put me right back on land safe, I appreciate it,’ he said.
The pair then shared a hug, leaving Smith audibly moved.
Moving: The driver and Smith then shared a moving hug before he headed off to a drier location – and Smith continued her reports