A viral video is showing a remarkable rescue of a Florida panhandle man who was swept through a drainage culvert for 100 feet underwater -- with a sheriff's deputy right behind him.
Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said his deputy, William Hollingsworth, was working the streets during a torrential downpour on Friday. He came upon drivers who were stranded in rising water and got out of his squad car to help them. One man got out of his car -- and simply vanished, going underwater.
Simmons said Hollingsworth saw him and went down to get him, but both men were sucked into a large culvert and were carried by the fast-moving current beneath a four-lane highway. Hollingsworth's body cam was running the whole time, but while underwater in the dark there's nothing to see on the video.
Both men emerged on the other side, gasping for air after holding their breath for about 30 seconds. The civilian was disoriented and needed help from Hollingsworth who managed to get him into another deputy's squad car, out of the rain, to await an ambulance.
Simmons called the rescue "an example of the exceptional courage displayed by the men and women of law enforcement every day."
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