PULASKI, Va. – “It was tremendous,” Zane Quesenberry said when asked how he felt knowing he helped rescue a man from floodwater.
Quesenberry has lived near Heritage Park in Pulaski for several years but has never seen it flooded like it was Monday morning.
“I was just in my backyard up the hill here and looked down towards the park. I saw a red vehicle floating in the water. Something about the situation just told me something was wrong,” said Quesenberry.
He was right.
An elderly man was in the car.
When Quesenberry got to the park, three employees from a local landscape company were trying to help.
“They had already made contact with the gentleman and he was refusing to get out of his car,” Quesenberry said.
Wading out to the car in chest-deep water as the car slowly sank, Quesenberry and two of the landscape employees were able to convince the man to get out, likely saving his life.
Pulaski County fire chief Robbie Kiser said firefighters had trouble getting there.
“It was (a call about) a possible vehicle overturned in the Dora Highway area with entrapment. We finally made it because our access was cut off,” Kiser explained.
After the rescue, Quensenberry and his wife drove the elderly man home.
The man’s wife, Quesenberry said, had no idea her husband was in danger.
“She was extremely grateful and we were just blessed we were able to get him home safely,” Quesenberry said.
The landscaping company employees, the elderly man and his wife all declined to be interviewed.
Quesenberry said this is an example of just how unbelievable the power of Mother Nature is and how quickly that power can become potentially deadly.