Albert May helped to save an unidentified man, woman, and child from drowning, Pittbridge, Texas, December 7, 1913. May, 27, motorman, and another man volunteered to cross the Brazos River, which was in flood, to give assistance to persons who were calling for help. They entered a flat-bottomed boat and paddled across the channel of the river and then through a break in a levee through which the water was rushing at a speed of 20 m.p.h. Near their course above the levee was a whirlpool that, during the flood, made a hole in the ground a half-mile wide and 100 feet deep. May and his companion heard cries and found the man and his family on the roof of a house that had lodged with other drift against a tree. They had been on the roof three nights and had drifted to the tree from a point 14 miles distant. May took the man and his family into the boat, and then he and his companion paddled a mile to a building on a knoll. As the boat neared the building, the stern was sucked down, and May slid off his seat into the water He grabbed the boat and held to it. He was in water four feet deep, and he waded to the building holding to the boat. Later, when water conditions were no worse, three men who attempted to go through the break in the levee were thrown into the water when their boat struck a snag and was wrecked. 12834-1053
12834 – 1053
12834-1053