Florida deputy and motorist survive being swept through storm drain amid huge rainstorm

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff’s deputy and a motorist are lucky to be alive after they were sucked into a storm drain during a torrential downpour. The pair were underwater for about 30 seconds as they traveled nearly 100 feet through a drain pipe near Pensacola last Friday. Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons says it was all captured on Deputy William Hollingsworth’s body camera. The sheriff says Hollingsworth had stopped to help motorists stranded by rapidly rising water. That’s when he spotted the man go under. He rushed to his aid but was also swept into the drain. They emerged, safe but shaken, on the other side of the highway.