It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment: On Tuesday night, while searching for a boy who was sucked into a Wisconsin storm drain, a firefighter happened to look down at a manhole cover and saw the 11-year-old's fingers pop up through an opening.
The boy was playing with his friends in a flooded drainage ditch in Calumet County when he suddenly slipped under the water, and never came back up, The Associated Press reports. Sheriff's deputies, a dive team, and volunteer firefighters came rushing to the scene, and Deputy Fire Chief Wesley Pompa and another official began trying to determine where the water might take the boy. They were standing on a manhole cover, and when Pompa looked down, he saw the boy's fingers.
Immediately, they got to work prying the cover open, then lifted the boy out. "He was hollering," Pompa told AP. The boy had managed to find an air pocket under the cover, and was holding on to a ladder when Pompa spotted his fingers. "I just thank God he was alive and he'd made it that long," Pompa said. "It could have gone a million different ways but this one way it worked out for him." The boy, whose name was not released, was taken to an area hospital. The region has been hit by several storms over the last week, with flooding reported in 20 counties.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How China is battling the chikungunya virusUnder The Radar Thousands of cases of the debilitating disease have been found in the country
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
Book reviews: 'Face With Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji' and 'Blood Harmony: The Everly Brothers Story'Feature The surprising history of emojis and the brother duo who changed pop music
-
Massive earthquake sends tsunami across PacificSpeed Read Hundreds of thousands of people in Japan and Hawaii were told to evacuate to higher ground
-
FEMA Urban Search and Rescue chief resignsSpeed Read Ken Pagurek has left the organization, citing 'chaos'
-
Wildfires destroy historic Grand Canyon lodgeSpeed Read Dozens of structures on the North Rim have succumbed to the Dragon Bravo Fire
-
Search for survivors continues after Texas floodsSpeed Read A total of 82 people are confirmed dead, including 28 children
-
EPA is reportedly killing Energy Star programspeed read The program for energy-efficient home appliances has saved consumers billions in energy costs since its 1992 launch
-
US proposes eroding species protectionsSpeed Read The Trump administration wants to change the definition of 'harm' in the Environmental Protection Act to allow habitat damage
-
Severe storms kill dozens across central USSpeed Read At least 40 people were killed over the weekend by tornadoes, wildfires and dust storms
-
Rain helps Los Angeles wildfires, risks mudslidesSpeed Read The weather provided relief for crews working to contain wildfires, though rain over a burn area ups the chances of flooding and mudslides
