Florida deputy, resident ‘lucky to be alive’ after being swept into drain pipe during flood: Sheriff

A Florida deputy and a resident are both “lucky to be alive” after they were sucked into a drainage pipe by flood water, according to Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons.

On Friday, Escambia County Deputy William Hollingsworth was on patrol when he spotted a motorist who was stranded after getting caught in rising water, body camera footage of the incident shows.

Hollingsworth can be seen getting out of his car during a torrential downpour and approaching the person, who he then witnessed go underwater, and trying to rescue him “without regard for his own safety,” before getting dragged underneath the water himself, Simmons said.

The motorist and Hollingsworth were swept nearly 100 feet under water for approximately 30 seconds under Highway 98, before emerging on the other side of the road, Simmons said.

In the video, a seemingly grateful Hollingsworth can be seen and heard catching his breath, assisting the motorist and expressing shock about what just happened to them both.

“Can you […] believe what happened to us,” Hollingsworth said, using an expletive for emphasis, the video shows.

Later in the video, the motorist exclaims “I almost died” as he tries to catch his breath.

Florida and other parts of the South have been slammed with severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in recent days.

A tornado struck Pensacola, Florida, killing one person after a tree fell on their home on Friday, according to Escambia County Fire Rescue.

Unrelenting rounds of severe thunderstorms continue to hammer parts of the South this weekend, with thunderstorms likely to touch down from Arkansas to the Florida Panhandle from Sunday afternoon through the evening, forecasts show.

The severe weather threat will linger across parts of the northern Gulf Coast region on Monday, focusing from the Mississippi coast and eastward across the Florida Panhandle, including cities such as Mobile, Alabama, and Tallahassee, Florida.

ABC News’ Julia Jacobo and Daniel Peck contributed to this report.