A West Palm Beach, Florida, mother of three risked her own life Monday night to rescue a man who had driven his vehicle into a lake.
Annmarie Sanchez said Willow Pond Road was so flooded it was impossible to tell where the road ended and the lake began.
Sanchez said her daughter told her that there was a vehicle in the lake, and Sanchez ran to see if she could help.
She said many residents were standing on the bank using their phones to record the vehicle, but nobody was helping.
Sanchez decided to act.
“I had no idea if there were crocodiles, alligators, anything. I just kind of went for it. I wasn’t going to let him die,” Sanchez said.
Video below: Boat video shows heavy flooding in McCaysville, Georgia
She dove into the water and swam toward the vehicle, which was completely submerged by the time she reached it.
The driver was struggling to stay afloat.
Sanchez began pulling the man toward the shore, but the effort was difficult.
“Then I got really desperate, where I really couldn’t hold him anymore, and I started asking for a helping hand, and I’m yelling,” Sanchez said.
Video shows Sanchez pulling the man, screaming, “Somebody, pull my hand, please.”
However, nobody helped.
“That was very frustrating, and it made me feel, kind of, like, very inhumane,” Sanchez said.
She continued pulling the man and said she was seconds away from giving up.
“I have him by the arm. I can’t keep up,” she is heard saying in the video.
That’s when a woman swam out to help her, and together they brought the man to shore safely.
On Thursday afternoon, Sanchez received a knock on her door.
It was the man she had saved, introducing himself as Bill.
“I was so happy to see his face,” Sanchez said. “We hugged. That’s the first thing that we did.”
Video from Sanchez’s home security system shows the two hugging while Sanchez said, “I’m so glad you’re OK.”
“The first thing he said was, ‘Thank you for having the courage to jump in when nobody else did. Thank you for saving me,'” Sanchez said.
Sanchez told him it was something she felt she had to do.
“I just couldn’t sit there and let a stranger die in front of me and not do anything,” she said.
Sanchez said she hopes to keep in touch with Bill and is also searching for the woman who helped her during the rescue to thank her personally.
