Piggybacked to safety: Good Samaritan carries stranded driver through Atlanta floodwater
As Mary Brathwaite and her husband George drove along a dry stretch of road beside the flooded I-75/I-85 downtown connector, they noticed a stranded driver on top of her waterlogged white sedan.
Watch: Hero piggybacks stranded driver from Atlanta floodwater
After torrential rain flooded a Georgia highway outside Atlanta, a good Samaritan risked his own safety to carry a stranded driver on his back through rising water.
ATLANTA, Georgia – When flash flooding turned a busy Atlanta road into a river deep enough to strand cars, one heroic traveler trudged through the water to rescue a stranded driver.
Intense rain drenched the Atlanta metro area on Wednesday, flooding major roadways and bringing traffic to a standstill as numerous drivers found themselves stranded in rising water with nowhere to go.
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As Mary Brathwaite and her husband George drove along a dry stretch of road beside the flooded I-75/I-85 downtown connector, they noticed a stranded driver on top of her waterlogged white sedan.
George Brathwaite and his wife identified the stranded driver on top of their vehicle and immediately stopped to offer help after floodwaters took over an Atlanta highway on Wednesday.
(Mary Brathwaite via Storyful)
George shouted, "Hey, you need some help?"
Without hesitation, he left the dry confines of his vehicle and walked across the flooded Georgia highway – submerging himself in waist-deep floodwater – and trudged across two lanes to the stranded white sedan.
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"I'll get you some more shoes," Mrs. Brathwaite said to her husband before braving the floodwater.
The stranded driver was carried piggyback by George Brathwaite, who trudged through nearly waist-high floodwater before setting the driver down safely on the dry grass median.
(Mary Brathwaite via Storyful)
Sitting on top of her car, the stranded driver quickly assumed a piggyback position and was carried to safety on the dry land where Mary waited in the car filming the heroic save.
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Panning across the flooded road, video footage captured a red truck also submerged in floodwater as intense rain swamped the popular Georgia roadway.
The video also shows several other vehicles partially submerged on I-75/I-85 after intense rainfall transformed the highway into a river.
(Mary Brathwaite via Storyful)
The water-logged roadway forced Georgia state troopers to shut down the heavily traveled downtown connector during Wednesday’s peak rush hour, snarling traffic across the heart of Atlanta.