A woman has had her faith in humanity restored after neighbors arrived on paddleboards to rescue her and her son during recent flooding in Florida.
Emergency services were unable to reach her, the 911 operator said, as Brittany Grant and her son sat on their kitchen counter while floodwaters rose higher and higher above their floor.
Brevard County was recently hit by what weather reports say is a 1,000 year rain event, which flooded towns like Melbourne, Port Lucie, and Palm Bay where Grant lives with her son and 3 dogs.
Having had no luck with 911, Grant turned to Facebook asking for help. Seeing the social media SOS, neighbor Stephanie Fanguy marshalled her strapping teenage sons Jonah, 15, and Lucas, 17, who immediately planned a navigational rescue.
Embarking on an inflatable paddleboard and a borrowed kayak, Jonah and Lucas reached Grant’s house and got to work getting her son Nikoa out through what appeared on social media to be the kitchen window.
Lucas tried to calm Nikoa, who told Click Orlando he struggles with anxiety, by asking him simple questions and remarking humorously at the weather.
Eventually, mother, son, and their 3 dogs—including one which took up half the paddleboard—were all brought to safety.
“The community came together and saved us,” she said. “If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know how we would have gotten out.”
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“My faith in humanity has been restored,” she added, saying that other neighbors had volunteered to help as well.
Lucas and Jonah, meanwhile, had a hero’s mentality: someone needed help and they didn’t think twice.
“Because they needed help and they were in trouble and danger, so just didn’t think about it and just went to help them,” Jonah said.
CELEBRATE These Brave Teens, A Quick-Thinking Mom, And Compassionate Neighbors…