Rescued woman praises officers for going ‘above and beyond’

Carol Lewis was already safe inside the rescue helicopter when she realized she had forgotten something.

A few minutes earlier, the 70-year-old had been hanging from the passenger window of her 1981 Datsun pickup as the swirling water at her feet rose quickly toward her waist.

A Las Vegas police search and rescue officer secured her arms and legs to the harness, set her purse and cane aside, and managed to pull most of her body through the window. He told her to keep her arms up and the chopper hovering overhead would do the rest.

"I just heard a 'whoosh,' and it pulled me out," Lewis recalled of the Tuesday afternoon swift-water rescue. "I kept my eyes shut. I didn't want to see anything."

As the helicopter began to pull her rescuer up from the flooded Sahara Avenue roadway, Lewis called down, " 'Did you remember my purse?' And he said, 'Oh, no.' All my IDs and my money were inside."

Later, with the chopper parked on a patch of green grass, Lewis said, another officer came running to her with the purse.

"They went back for it," she said.

Lewis said she was inspired to tell her story when she saw herself dangling from the helicopter on the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Wednesday edition.

Not only did the officers retrieve her purse, she said, they also drove her home and helped her to the door. Lewis, who uses a cane after having five back surgeries, appreciated their effort.

"These officers went above and beyond," she said.

Lewis was one of about 50 people rescued by police and firefighters in Clark County during a Tuesday downpour that flooded many Las Vegas streets.

At one of the worst intersections, Sahara and Sloan Lane, where Lewis was pulled to safety, about 15 people needed rescuing from vehicles, county officials said.

None of the drivers in her area received much of a warning about the upcoming flood, Lewis said. When she turned her truck onto Sahara, the roadway was wet but drivable, she said.

But she said water suddenly began pouring from a drainage ditch near the Desert Rose Golf Course, which was hammered by the storm. Police said a groundskeeper at the golf course went missing in about 12 feet of water during the floods.

Lewis, who had been driving home after playing a free $25 slot coupon at Arizona Charlie's casino, was stuck in moments.

"It was like a dam broke," she said.

Lewis said she never got the names of the officers who rescued her and wanted to thank them again.

When she went back for her truck Tuesday night after the water had receded, officers were guarding the vehicles from any potential vandals, she said.

The truck was covered in debris, and water had risen up to her radio, she said, but her story had a happy ending.

Although other cars remained halted because their computer systems had been drenched, the old Datsun had no such problems.

"It started right up, and it's still working today," she said. "It's soaked and filthy, but it's working."

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.