airboat rescues pregnant woman and family

posted: 17 September 2018

KELLY, N.C. – Wild Florida, an airboat company that normally gives tourists a ride through the Everglades, performed a rescue in North Carolina after Hurricane Florence moved through the area.

Eight months pregnant with a child on her back, an entire family that escaped Florence was now about to go under in her aftermath as they were trapped in flooded waters.

Jordan Munns of Wild Florida said that “No one was coming, and they’d just sort of accepted, ‘we’re not going to make it out of this. This is it.'” But thankfully, four Florida boys in an air boat found them. “We heard the first scream is when we knew boom, it’s on, and we just tunnel visioned; we have to get to them.”

The Wild Florida team went to the Hurricane Zone in the Carolinas on Friday. Their airboats, which have been useful in past storms, were a lifesaver on Sunday. No other rescue boat could navigate through the rough terrain. So, their airboat — with no motor on the back — had a chance. They cut through the dense trees and jumped in the fast moving flood to get the family out.

Munn says that the family of six was “clinging for life in these trees from about 4 a.m. until 8 a.m. when we showed up. Munn says that “actually the dad who had his son and the family dog had just decided that I can’t hold my son, keep my head above water, and hold the dog. So, 15 minutes before we had got there, he’d let the dog go.”

Thankfully, they got everyone out though. And somehow, they even found the dog that the family thought they had lost forever.

Munn says that “We almost didn’t make it back. It was really crazy.”

This was Florida’s only rescue out in the Carolinas. Nonetheless, Munn says that they “feel like we’re friends with the people in Kelly, North Carolina. We’ll never forget them.”