Man rescued from flooded car; more rain likely

Published 6:00 am Friday, February 21, 2003

Aaron Achord sustained some good-natured ribbing from co-workersbut no injuries Friday morning after he and his car had to berescued from a flooded county road.

“They’re having some fun with this,” said Achord, the newengineering and operations manager for Magnolia Electric.

Achord was on his way to work around 7:30 a.m. when he tried togo through a flooded area on Fern Lane. Achord indicated the water,from a Bogue Chitto River tributary, did not appear too deep and hestarted to ease across the area.

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“The next thing I knew the car was floating toward the woods,”Achord said.

Clifford Galey, Lincoln County Civil Defense director, saidthere was nothing Achord could do at that point.

“He eased off in there, and the water got quicker and deeperthan he expected,” Galey said.

When the car got stuck, Achord got out and used a cellulartelephone to call for help.

“I’m standing on the hood of the car, ‘Get me a wrecker,'”Achord said in recalling the incident.

Galey said that was the smart thing to do.

“He was very patient in waiting for us to get here to assisthim,” Galey said.

Galey stressed the importance of a proper response when aperson’s car get flooded. He said they should either stay in thevehicle or get on the roof and not get into the water to try andget out.

“If the water is swift enough to move a car, imagine what itcould do if you got in it,” Galey said.

Firefighters used a boat to get to Achord and a wrecker serviceto pull his car from the water. Achord was out of the water byaround 8:15 a.m.

Volunteer firefighters from Zetus, Hog Chain, New Sight, andLoyd Star, as well as sheriff’s department and civil defenseofficials assisted in the rescue.

Fern Lane was one of several county roads that were reportedflooded after last night’s heavy rains.

Galey said flooded roads included East Lincoln and West Lincoln,Field Lark Lane and several others. Road flooding was also reportedin the Bogue Chitto area.

Galey said several inches fell within a few hours and thatcaused flooding.

“There’s no where for the water to go,” Galey said.

Four inches of rain in the last 24 hours was recorded at thecity’s waste water treatment plant this morning. Officials saidthat total was higher than the daily rainfall amount last year foreither Tropical Storm Isidore or Hurricane Lili, both of whichaveraged about 2.5 inches of rain a day when they came through thearea.

In the city, there was a report of a house flooded on LipseyStreet.

Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson and a sheriff’s departmentspokesman said their offices had received no reports of damage.

“We’ve had a little high water, but everything has been OK,”Henderson said.