Yesterday, was an exciting day! There was flash flooding here in Knoxville and Adam was wading out in the middle of it! He called me during his lunch break to ask about the weather here at the house. There was a lot coming down in just a few hours all over Knoxville. Within minutes of returning to work from lunch, Adam walked out to the back parking lot and realized that if he and his coworkers didn't move their vehicles, they would probably be flooded. They all moved them to the front of the building, which is higher ground and that turned out to be one of the smartest things they could have done. The employee parking lot on the backside of the office ran right up to First Creek, which flooded like crazy. By the end of the 3ish hours of nothing but rain and more rain, there was roughly 4 feet of water in the back parking lot. There are high steps leading to the back door of the office and nothing but the top platform was visible.
This was a truck parked in the back parking lot!
So while the water was rising in the back, it was also rising in the front, which is Broadway in Knoxville! The entire roadway and parking lot in front were covered with water also. Adam called back to tell me that Broadway was flooded and he was having to pull people out of their cars! Wait. Whaaaat? He was wading through water up to his hiney to help people who were stranded in their cars. I couldn't believe it until Jo Ann called me to tell me she saw him Live on the News! So of course I got on the computer and went to WBIR's website to watch the Live video, which they kept looping. I was in shock.
Hopefully this video will show up. Adam's part has been edited out quite a bit, but you can still see his arms as he helps two ladies out of their car. The ladies were interviewed and got their pictures taken with Adam and Jeremy (who is wearing a red shirt in the video). Adam and Jeremy declined interviews (Boo!); however, their clip made it on National TV on The Weather Channel's Top 5 Storm videos (they were #2)!
Adam and Jeremy are a little over a minute into the video. You'll see a silver car literally float to the left side of the screen. They edited out where Jeremy was pulling on the car door trying to pry it open. The water was up to their hips. Adam was having to hold onto Jeremy so he wouldn't fall in. That kind of water isn't for playing around in! Also there is a van stranded in the middle of what is actually a road, with water almost up to the windows on the video. That is the road that leads to the back of Adam's office. The people in that van swam up to Adam and they helped them out.
Adam was glad that they didn't show more of him on the video clip. He had been out rescuing other people earlier and decided to wash and dry his shoes and work pants in the dryer at work. One of his coworkers (a female) had some UT pajama bottoms that she let him borrow! So if they had shown more of Adam during this rescue, you would have seen Adam barefoot and wearing women's UT pajama bottoms, rolled up to his thighs! He said there was no sense wearing shoes back out there since they would just get soaked again! I would pay good money to see the rest of that footage!
What an exciting day! I have to say that I have seen Adam save a life once before (even though he wouldn't let me blog about it) and watching him on TV again helping others and risking his own life (if water will move a car, it will take down a grown man), makes me more than proud to call him my husband! I don't think anyone would doubt that Adam is a wonderful human being, but what he and Jeremy did was heroic!
As I get more video and pictures from Adam's phone, I will try to post them!
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