THAT WAS FLOODY CLOSE: Rescuers Save Homeless Man Trapped Under Bridge Swamped By Cyclone
This is the moment firefighters rescue a homeless man trapped under a bridge during a cyclone – without even knowing he was there.
Firefighters had originally been called out to a car washed away by powerful cyclone flood waters in Hermosillo, Sonora state, Mexico.
But when they got there they found a trapped homeless man who had been living under the bridge when he was caught in the flash flood on 28th July.
Reports say the man had been swept into a drainage tunnel but could not escape due to strong winds rushing through the city at 60 kph (37 mph).
Video footage of the rescue shows firefighters and police officers hauling the man out with a rope back to dry land.
Local fire chief Juan Matty Ortega said: “He was a homeless person who was pulled out of a water duct that he lived inside.
“They went to rescue a car and it turns out that there was a person inside (the canal) who was struggling.”
The firefighter went on to say that the cyclone, named Frank, has caused great damage to the city.
Previous cyclones have been called Estelle, Darby, Celia, Blas and Agatha.
Frank is the sixth cyclone of the season.
The storm has different effects in the northern zone of the Pacific, where the city is located and where weather forecasts predicted lightning, hail, extremely hot temperatures and strong winds reaching 30 to 40 kph (19 to 25 mph) on the coast.
According to the Pacific Disaster Centre, Frank is currently located about 655 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, while the Central Pacific Hurricane Centre expects the storm to get weaker over the next few days.
The hurricane season in the Atlantic lasts from 1st June to 30th November.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Centre has explained that the chance for storms within the Atlantic basin is 65 per cent higher while an abnormal number of tropical storms is likely to be experienced in the eastern Pacific zone this year.