A woman narrowly escaped disaster after becoming trapped inside a large sinkhole, then being pulled to safety in a dramatic rescue caught on camera.
The 7-foot-deep sinkhole suddenly opened up in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, last Tuesday afternoon while heavy rain pounded the city.
As the storm intensified, the woman’s white SUV became lodged nose-first in the hole. Officer Antwon “AJ” Stevenson then rushed in to help.
The Norfolk Police Department later released bodycam footage of the tense rescue, calling Stevenson’s quick action the “talk of the town.”
In the video, Stevenson can be heard asking the unidentified woman whether anyone else was inside the vehicle. She appears to reply that she had been on her way to work.
The moment Stevenson pulled open the driver’s door, water began rushing into the SUV.
Clinging tightly to the officer’s arm, the woman struggled to keep steady as fast-moving floodwater slammed around her.
By the time she managed to climb out of the partially submerged SUV, the water had risen to her knees. Stevenson urgently told her to “hold still” and “hold on” as he guided her to safety.
The unidentified woman’s car began getting flooded immediately as she was helped out by a police officer
The woman’s white SUV became partially submerged last Tuesday afternoon on East City Hall Avenue in Norfolk, Virginia, as the rain was getting hit by torrential rain
The Norfolk Police Department said Stevenson received help from ‘caring citizens who stopped to help him’ while he rescued the trapped driver.
Authorities said Stevenson’s daring rescue took less than a minute.
Brennan Feldman was driving downtown when he witnessed the woman’s car in the sinkhole. He said he noticed her ‘screaming for help.’
‘It was raining harder than I’ve ever seen it rain in my entire life,’ Feldman told 13NewsNow.
Norfolk was under a flash flood warning at the time, according to the outlet.
‘I couldn’t just leave her there,’ Feldman said. ‘That just didn’t feel right.’
Feldman explained that Stevenson jumped into the sinkhole moments later.
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He said the water reached up to the police officer’s chest once he was in and that he was holding him back by the belt.
In the bodycam video, the officer could be heard asking bystanders to grab his belt as he rushed to help the woman.
‘The lady is like, so frozen in fear that she can’t even move, or speak, or nothing,’ Feldman said.
Bodycam footage released by the Norfolk Police Department showed how the water reached up to the woman’s knees as she was helped out of her vehicle by a law enforcement officer
Officer Antwon ‘AJ’ Stevenson said he was fully focused on rescuing the woman, even as the water reached his chest when he rushed to her rescue
Stevenson called the sinkhole rescue a ‘team effort’ as he lauded the bystanders who witnessed the car getting trapped.
‘They didn’t pull their phones out and start recording,’ according to comments collected by 13NewsNow. ‘They actually stood by and even checked on me, as well as the woman.’
Stevenson said he ‘didn’t factor my own safety in,’ adding that he was fully focused on the woman’s panic.
He added that a separate police officer was in the vicinity and would have been ready to help, as well.
The daughter of the driver, who also has not been identified, said that Norfolk’s roads were ‘unsafe.’
‘My mother is shaken up and upset,’ she told WTKR. ‘She was just driving to go do something for her job and the road fell in.’
‘Her life flashed before her eyes,’ the daughter added.
The sinkhole was caused by a water main break, according to the outlet.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Norfolk Police Department for further comment.
