"I just thank God he was alive."

It happened in the village of Harrison, Wisconsin, recently. Heavy rains pounded the area. A boy (name unknown) was playing in a flooded drainage ditch with friends around 6 p.m. when he disappeared under the water. A dive team, Sheriff deputies and volunteer firemen responded. When they arrived, they saw a bystander trying to hold on to the boy, but he was sucked by rushing water into the flooded culvert which led to a storm sewer.

                                                                                                                               Wm. Glasheen
Rescuers could do nothing except try to learn where the flow might take the boy, so they got a map of the sewers. Two rescuers were standing on a manhole cover about 30 feet from the ditch when they saw a boy's fingers pop through the opening in the cover. The boy had found a pocket of air beneath the manhole cover and was hanging onto a ladder leading up to the manhole. Firefighters removed the cover and saved him. He was alert and conscious after the ordeal. Said one rescuer, "I just thank God he was alive."