A video showing the heroic rescue of a man and his dog caught in catastrophic flooding in Connecticut that killed at least two people on Sunday has gone viral on social media.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency warning Sunday for parts of Fairfield, New Haven, Litchfield and Hartford counties as parts of Connecticut received nearly 10 inches of rain, what some meteorologists are calling a “millennial” rainfall event. More than 100 people were evacuated in the state Sunday, the Associated Press reported, as Gov. Ned Lamont declared a state of emergency.
The sudden and violent flooding caught many people off guard, including one driver whose car nearly submerged in a flooded intersection in Southbury. In a video shared by AccuWeather on X, formerly Twitter, and filmed by a woman named Tania Carver, a man bravely wades through floodwaters to save the man and his dog. The driver, who is an amputee, can be seen getting out of the vehicle with the help of his rescuer, who is wearing a prosthetic hand.
“A motorist was stranded by floodwaters as heavy rains hit Southbury, Connecticut, on Sunday,” read the caption above the video. “A good Samaritan rescued the driver, then returned to retrieve the dog and prosthetic leg. Everyone was safe.”
The video then shows the good Samaritan walking towards the back door of the car. Once opened, a dog can be seen in the flooded back seat.
Carver said everyone made it safely to dry land where the driver was able to place his prosthetic leg on his leg and stand up, FOX Weather reported.
The AP also reported that a good Samaritan named Lucas Barber rescued a man and his dog in Southbury, although Newsweek could not verify whether the man in Carver’s video is the same man mentioned in the AP report.
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The storm, which is unrelated to Hurricane Ernesto, a Category 1 storm currently in the Atlantic Ocean, has also brought torrential rain to New York and New Jersey. While the storms are unrelated, the hurricane is causing dangerous rip currents in the northeastern United States.
Parts of the East Coast, including much of Delaware and New Jersey, remained under flood warnings Monday.
More rain is expected in Connecticut, the NWS warned, but NWS meteorologist Bill Goodman said Newsweek that the showers will be short-lived compared to those on Sunday.
However, the extra moisture could contribute to flooding, given how saturated the ground is, Goodman said. He added that dry weather would return Tuesday and persist through the weekend.
