A long-haul truck driver is being praised as a hero after he helped save several Tennessee factory workers who were swept away by life-threatening floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Michael Dorsey, the courageous man behind that rescue, explained to Scripps News how "traumatizing" and "unreal" the whole situation was.
"I pulled up to the road and the water had already looked like it was too high for my truck to travel through, so I backed up down the road in front of Plastic Pipe," he explained. "I sit there for a minute and there was another driver that was next to me, and he rolled down his window and asked me what was I gonna do. And I was like 'I don't know.'"
RELATED STORY | Displaced residents grappling with Helene's aftermath
It was at that point that the other driver decided to drive through the rushing floodwaters and made it through. That's when Dorsey said he was going to try the same thing, but then something stopped him.
"A lady ... she knocked on my truck and she was asking me if they could get on my truck, you know, for refuge. And I was like, 'Sure,' Dorsey recalled. "So I let everybody get on my truck."
However, Dorsey explained that after a few minutes, the water had risen so fast that it began to pour inside the cabin of his truck.
"Once we got on the trailer, we was holding on and my truck capsized," he said. "Water started to fill the truck and it started to shift us a little bit, but there was a tree holding us back. And after about three or four minutes, the truck broke loose from the trailer and the trailer started to rise and go down the river a little bit — well, down the road."
It was at that moment, Dorsey explained, that the trailer — still with everyone on it — collided with something and capsized, sending them into the rushing floodwaters.
"While we was going down the road, something hit me in the back of the head and knocked me inside one of the tubes and knocked me out," Dorsey continued. "And when I fell in the water, I guess because the water was so cold, I came to. I ended up grabbing hold of another tube."
RELATED STORY | Woman who survived Hurricane Katrina compares flooding to Hurricane Helene
Some of the people eventually came to a spot of "thick brush," Dorsey explained, where they were able to gather and use a lady's phone to call for help. But at the end of the day, Dorsey said he doesn't view himself as the hero in the whole situation.
"I mean, I was trying to keep people calm, but at the same time, I mean I didn't know my fate either," he said. "But I don't feel like I'm a hero. I mean, God is the hero. I mean, I was just at the right place at the right time."
In the aftermath of the incident, authorities have opened up a criminal investigation into the owners of the same factory where those that Dorsey helped worked. Employees allege that despite flash flood warnings being in place, they were not allowed to leave work until the parking lot was already flooded.
Luckily for them, a man and his truck were waiting outside to help.
