SATURATION FRUSTRATION

High Water Rescue on Cummins Creek

A local truck driver required rescue after floodwaters swept his semi rig into Cummins Creek near Ledbetter on Monday, May 26.

The incident happened around 3:30 p.m. Tomas Garza, 68 of West Point, was driving a truck-tractor pulling an oilfield tanker south on Goehring Road. When Garza attempted to cross the low water crossing at Cummins Creek, the rig slipped off the left side of the embankment.

Garza was trapped in the cab as the water rushed 2½ feet over the roadway.

Firefighters from Ledbetter Volunteer Fire Department donned floatation devices and got in the water. They used a winch cable from the front of a fire truck as a life line. They waded through the murky, fastmoving water to reach the truck. They brought Garza out from the passenger side.

“When I was driving across, the water all of a sudden starting coming stronger and pushed me off,” Garza told the Record after the rescue.

No one was injured.

A large contingent EMS, emergency management personnel and county officials gathered at the scene to witness the rescue.

Among them were Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom and Pct. 2 Commissioner Luke Sternadel, who watched from opposite ends of the flooded creek.

Cummins Creek serves as the dividing line between the two precincts at that location.

Fayette County Emergency Management Chief Craig Moreau reported that the tanker was empty at the time. Moreau said it did not appear that any fluids leaked from the tanker or the truck’s fuel tanks.

Delgado Wrecker Service of Elgin pulled the rig out of the Creek about an hour later.