Jason Barnes helped form a human chain to rescue a woman being swept away in raging floodwaters in Ellicott City, Maryland, on Saturday. He told News4’s Darcy Spencer that he was “just the bottom link on a very strong chain.”
When the owner of a toy store in Ellicott City, Maryland, saw rushing floodwater had trapped a woman in her car, he knew he had no choice but to get in the water and help.
Jason Barnes waded into the water as it raged around the woman's car. Continuous rainfall during historic flooding Saturday night made a rescue look impossible on Main Street until Barnes led the charge to form a human chain.
"I think I did what anyone else would do," he told News4. "There was four other people who were helping with everything. I was just the bottom link on a very strong chain."
In a gripping video filmed by one of Barnes' fellow Main Street shop owners, he can be seen trudging through the water and then falling down into the current. He steadied himself and made his way to the woman's car.
Other bystanders linked arms with Barnes and then each other as they began to scream for the terrified woman to get out of her car.
"Everything around us was replaceable, but that person floating down in the car was not," he said.
Barnes fell into the water as he waited for the woman to muster the courage to jump out of her car. Eventually, he and the other bystanders convinced her there was no other way.
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She jumped out the passenger window, and Barnes carried her to safety, where she hugged and thanked him.
Video of the rescue rocked many people who watched it.
"Almost like whitewater rafting in Colorado, or Savage River here, and then seeing the human chain of that incredible, brave act by the man who owns the toy store -- my breath was taken away," Sen. Barbara Mikulski said.
Barnes opened his store, All Time Toys, just two months ago on Main Street. Though he may not have much to return to at the store, the husband and father is grateful to have survived the flooding that killed two people.
"My wife was there, my daughter was there and they both scolded me and they're both like, 'Don't ever do that again,' but, eh, probably would," he said with a smile and a shrug.
A GoFundMe page established to help Barnes recover the store had raised more than $13,000 by 7 p.m. Monday. Other charities and organizations, including the United Way and the Ellicott City Partnership, also stepped in to raise funds and collect food for the town's flood victims.
Read here about what you can do to help Ellicott City recover.
