GLOBE, AZ — The Arizona Department of Transportation is honoring one of its workers who took action and put his own life on the line to save others during the deadly and destructive floods in Globe late last month.
On Friday, September 26, road crews were cleaning up debris as storms sent floodwaters rushing through the town, when one worker came upon a stuck pick-up truck and a stranded ambulance on Jesse Hayes Road.
ADOT says the ambulance was trying to reach a teenager who was suffering from a serious wound with extensive bleeding, and was forced to stop when it came upon the floodwaters and a stalled truck in its path.
Take a look at the conditions from the incident in the player below.
“I just thought I needed to get that truck out of there, so that ambulance could get through,” worker Karl Lopez said, according to a press release from ADOT. “That’s all I was thinking. I just acted on it.”
Lopez used his emergency response truck to chain up and tow out the stranded truck, opening a path for the ambulance. However, the water hadn’t receded enough yet for the ambulance to safely cross.
ADOT says that after some time, the ambulance was able to cross the flooded roadway, and Lopez followed the ambulance in case it needed further assistance.
The ambulance was finally able to reach the patient, and Lopez helped load the teenager into the ambulance, which then headed to a Phoenix hospital.
The teen's current condition is not known.
The heavy storms and flooding left multiple people dead in the Globe area and left a path of damage.
Governor Katie Hobbs toured Gila County over the weekend to see the damage firsthand and pledged state support for recovery efforts.
Despite the devastation, ABC15 has seen multiple stories of hope and community.
Good Samaritans from the town and across the state have lined the streets, hoping to help impacted families.
Last week, ABC15’s Nick Ciletti talked with workers at the Central Arizona Council on Developmental Disabilities in Globe who came with shovels, brooms, wheelbarrows and other tools to help clean up and reopen the center.
“This place would not look how it does today without the help of the neighbors and then just sheer strangers walking in to help,” one victim, who lives along Jesse Hayes Road, told ABC15.
Globe Mayor Al Gameros says the United Globe-Miami Fund has already raised more than half a million dollars to help families and small businesses directly.
