Tow truck driver rescued driver stranded by Friday's floodwaters

Denise Crowell was driving through heavy rain on her way home Friday evening to Beaver Bank on the outskirts of Halifax when, like many people caught off-guard by the torrential rainfall, she found herself in a frightening situation.

Crowell told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon she had spent the day with friends in Dartmouth and was driving carefully on the Bedford Bypass when her Hyundai Accent hit a deep patch of water near the Rocky Lake Drive overpass and stalled.

She said she had not encountered water on the roads before that moment and couldn't avoid the flooded area.

The car became totally swamped, the dashboard lit up and the car was totally immobile, she said. She said the water was up to the doors and she could feel the car rocking.

Crowell said there is no shoulder on that part of the road and she found herself stranded in the car between the median and the guardrail.

"It was enough to kind of think, if I get out, am I going to get squished between the car and the railing?" she said. "If someone hits me, I'm going to go over the railing. You know, all these different scenarios were going through my head."

'Out of nowhere'

Crowell said she was still trying to restart her car when a flatbed tow truck pulled up "out of nowhere." 

The tow truck was driven by Riely Whitman of Kelly Towing in Grand Pré, who was on his way back the Annapolis Valley from Dartmouth.

Whitman said it had not been raining that hard as he was driving out of Dartmouth when he drove over the crest of a hill and saw Crowell's car stranded.

Whitman told Maritime Noon people were driving fast through the area and he was fearful one of them would hydroplane and hit her. 

He said the area around Crowell's car was littered with debris that flew off other cars when they hit the water.

"I just backed into the water and tried not to get too wet, but it happened, and pulled the car on the flatbed and we drove out of the water," he said.

"Before, we didn't realize how bad the situation was, until me and Denise were in the truck coming down toward Sackville and then we realized there was a lot going on."

'A gem'

Whitman said it was difficult so see all that people went through in the flooding. He said he was involved in the cleanup efforts in West Hants, which was very badly affected by flooding.

For her part, Crowell describes Whitman as a "gem" and said she's grateful he came along and helped keep her calm in a dangerous situation. She said she called the company on Wednesday to tell them how much she appreciated what he did to help her.

Whitman and Crowell were eventually able to find a route around the flooding that evening and left her car at a supermarket parking lot where it is still waiting to be seen by an insurance adjuster. 

"I don't know if I could have foreseen the seriousness of this at all," she said.

"I didn't get any alerts until later, after this was kind of all done. Like Riely said, we didn't really realize what was happening until we got closer into Sackville."