While reporting live from north Houston’s beltway, KHOU reporter Brandi Smith came to the rescue of a truck driver stranded and trapped in his 18-wheeler, with water rising quickly inside his cabin.
“The lights are going on this truck and the windshield wipers are going and as we get a little closer, it does look like there is someone inside. There is movement inside of this truck,” Smith reported on location at one of Hurricane Harvey’s hardest hit cities.
Watch the video above.
From an overpass, Smith shouted down to the trucker, asking if he was OK and able to climb out through the top of his truck, as the camera zoomed in on the vehicle.
Within moments and while their cameras continued to roll, a Harris County Sheriff’s Office truck towing a rescue boat was about to pass. Smith chased after it, until it pulled over.
“Sir, there is a boat here!” she yelled down to the man.
As one sheriff prepped for the rescue, the other told the reporter that a truck driver was stuck in a similar situation on the opposite side of the beltway the year before, but they reached that man too late. “We had to dive for him because he passed away and went underwater,” the sheriff said.
Meanwhile, Smith yelled down to the stranded driver that a boat was on the way.
“I cannot imagine how terrifying it would be to be in that place right now,” she told viewers. “Put yourself in that place: your car is filling with water. Help is on the way, he is incredibly lucky.”
Smith later tweeted that crews got that semi driver to safety.
He's out! Our signal died, but @HCSOTexas crews got to that semi driver to safety. Full video here: https://t.co/uacB9hk9sU #KHOU11
— Brandi Smith | KHOU (@Brandi_Smith_TV) August 27, 2017