In 2008, Reader's Digest celebrated 13 ordinary citizens who unexpectedly found themselves confronted with desperate situations--and acted. Their stories are told here. You let us know who inspires you the most by voting in our Hero of the Year poll, and here are the nominees.
I'm dead, thought Hoip "Ali" Swaby. Moments before, a whoosh of air and a hail of rocks had brought a roar of water into the excavation tunnel where Swaby and two fellow sandhogs were working ten stories below the streets of Fall River, Massachusetts. As the water quickly rose, a crane operator on the surface heard cries for help and lowered a "man cage" to the workers trapped in the shaft. Swaby clambered inside, but when the basket reached the surface, he yelled for a flashlight and demanded to be lowered back down. With 10,000 gallons of frigid water filling the hole each minute, his coworkers were now clinging desperately to the rock walls. Once back below, Swaby used his flashlight as a beacon and scooped his friends inside the cage.
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThis
