Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThisHolding On
The water was now about five inches over the top of the culvert, and Matt had to strain to keep his head above the surface. Though he’d shouted to his mother to keep away, she appeared above him. Leaning down, Rhonda worked her hands into the water, grasped Matt under his armpits and pulled with all her strength. The water rose to just below Matt’s chin. Rhonda Richards yelled for help.
Lee Greely and Lucas Vincent had been friends since they were in elementary school. Now the teenagers, schoolmates of Matt’s, worked after school as cooks at a local restaurant. That afternoon, Lee couldn’t make it home because of the flooded roads and had detoured to Luke’s house to wait for the waters to recede.
Curious, the boys walked in the rain to Hollow Road to see how badly it had flooded. They saw the Richards’s car stopped in the road and watched Matt get out and start wading through the water. Suddenly he seemed to fall and disappear. It’s the culvert, Luke thought. If Matt had been swept in, he could be trapped and drown. The woman by the car screamed, and the boys raced down the hill to help her.
But with Lee on one side of Matt and Luke on the other, each pulling on an arm as hard as they could, they found it was impossible to lift him. Rhonda positioned herself above and behind Matt and got her hands under his armpits at the same time. All three pulled again. Nothing.
“My legs are caught down there,” Matt told them. He was choking. The water rushing against his chest had forced his jacket and layered T-shirts so tightly against his throat that he was strangling. While the boys held Matt’s arms, Rhonda worked to strip off his jacket and shirts. Water surged around her and around Matt’s face. Again, they tried to lift him, but there was still no movement.
Fighting to stay on their feet, the boys were beginning to tire. All they could do was hold Matt’s arms up and try to keep his head above the water. His white, frightened face was turned upward into the driving rain.
Rhonda’s screams attracted others. Someone called 911. Mercifully, one neighbor came, guided little Jake away before he could see the horrific scene and took him home.
Wayne Vincent, Luke’s father, arrived and joined in the effort with men from the neighborhood. But like the boys before them, they exhausted themselves and could do little more than hold Matt’s head above water.
To cushion her son from slamming into the concrete, Rhonda knelt in the water and forced her hand down behind Matt’s back. The force of the water crushed her thumb and broke a bone in her hand.
The torrent was so strong, it stripped Matt, tearing off his pants, underwear and his prized new boots. He’d been trapped for 15 minutes, and his lips began to turn gray. “Mom, I’m not going to make it,” he said. “I can’t hold on much longer.”
Advertisement 
