Simple act of concern saves one man’s life

It was a little hairy in the Mat-Su Borough this week after strong winds and flooding tore up the place. But working together helping each other through this disaster also provided a chance for us to shine as a community.

Much of what we reported this week will never be printed in the pages of the Frontiersman. As fast as we’d update the list of roads closed by flooding, more roads would close and a new list would be released.

We posted links on Facebook to our coverage as well as to other pages with useful real-time information about the emergency, like to the National Weather Service website, the Matanuska Electric Association and Mat-Su Borough Facebook pages.

We traveled from the Butte to Talkeetna covering the waters as they rose along rivers and streams in the Matanuska and Susitna valleys. Lots of property was damaged. Lots of people were displaced. But, thus far, no one has been reported injured.

In Houston, fire department Capt. Christian Hartley credited mayor Virgie Thompson for setting safety as the priority for how city resources should be deployed there. Thompson was just as quick to laud the skills and selflessness of her emergency crews.

The mayor’s decision didn’t save a life. That took concerned neighbors and Houston firefighters willing to risk their own safety to help others.

Hartley said the incident began when they found out a woman planned to walk through the 3 to 4 feet of flowing water on Pay Dirt Road to rescue two dogs from her house that had become trapped in the flooding.

For safety’s sake, they asked if they could instead drive her to her house in their rescue truck. She agreed, and the rig made its way through the water toward her home. There, a roommate asked if anyone knew whether the handicapped man who lives next door had made it out. Nobody knew.

So a young Houston lieutenant navigated the more than 4 feet of water to reach the man’s door. There he found the handicapped man sitting in his recliner in chest-deep water, unable to get out or call for help.

The man was hypothermic, but otherwise OK, Hartley said.

That’s when the lieutenant scooped him up and carried him out of the trailer, through the water, to the command vehicle and safety.

The man declined medical care, so Hartley said they loaded him up and took him to the station, where they fed him and let him warm up for about four hours. And when he was feeling better, they took him to the Willow emergency shelter.

This is just the sort of happy ending we love to see. It’s what we think represents the best of life in the Valley: We help each other.

Kudos go to Lt. Thomas Hood, who was in the right place at the right time and saved a life.

But we reserve our highest praise for his neighbors, whose simple act of concern for another was the ultimate safety net. Because his neighbors cared, one man is still alive.