A helicopter team rescued a woman who was trapped atop her overturned pickup in rushing water for nearly 15 hours Tuesday morning after she tried to cross a swollen creek following recent rains in Northern California.
A California Highway Patrol Air Operations helicopter airlifted the woman to shore as water flowed around her vehicle at a park intersection.
Harrowing footage posted online shows the woman being plucked from the car by a helicopter technician using a rescue harness. California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Division Air Operations said on Facebook that the woman was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Her name was not released.
California Highway Patrol flight officer and paramedic Shaun Bouyea said it was remarkable the woman survived the 15-hour ordeal.
“Climbing onto the car saved her life,” he said.
After recent rain in the area, the creek’s unexpected water levels overtook the woman’s car as she tried to cross Del Valle Creek around 7 p.m. Monday in Livermore, a city about 37 miles east of San Francisco.
After the woman spent the night on top of the vehicle, a person camping nearby spotted her the next morning and alerted the provincial fire department. The department then turned to the California Highway Patrol Air Operations for support. Several emergency services assisted in the rescue.
Firefighters had tried to use their ladder truck to reach the woman until the Highway Patrol’s air patrol could send a helicopter to rescue her, said Cheryl Hurd, public affairs manager for the Alameda County Fire Department.
A San Ramon Valley Fire Department helicopter rescue technician landed on top of the vehicle and was able to restrained the woman and take her to emergency responders waiting on shore.
Hurd said the woman had made that crossing before, but she had underestimated the water levels that day.
Emergency services had carried out a similar rescue in the same creek in 2012 after a man became stranded on top of his vehicle.