The cascade of floodwater down the Ellicott City street was so strong that empty cars were being lifted and carried. But Jason Barnes noticed that one car had an occupant still inside. Wasting no time, Barnes rushed out into the currents, but was instantly swept off of his feet. Nothing daunted, he tried again by forming a human chain with friends to connect with the trapped woman. When she struggled to reach him, he broke off from the chain and picked her up. "I didn't think there was anything special going on," he told CNN. "You do what you need to do to help someone." Yet, it would have been easy for Barnes to do nothing. As a result of the flooding, he lost his car and his brand new toy shop. You can contribute to Barnes’ Go Fund Me page here.  

In the midst of the Baltimore rioting last spring, Toya Graham spotted her 16-year-old son Michael carrying a brick. Strongly opposed to the violence against law enforcement, she marched up to him and slapped him, dragging him away from the scene. The footage of the “hero mom” and her smackdown went viral. In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, she said simply: “I wasn’t there to be recorded, I was there to get my child.” Explaining that she had not raised Michael to behave this way, she stated, “I was so angry with him that he had made a decision to do some harm to the police officers.” When Cooper clarified that she did not approve of the rioting, she replied: “Not at all. Not at all.” And her thoughts on the mask Michael wore? “If you want to be bold enough to do this, then show your face!” 

After torrential rains led to flooding in Baton Rouge last weekend, one woman and her dog became trapped in their car. As it began to sink, three men on an emergency boat teamed up to break the window and extract the pair. At the first sound of breaking glass, one of them – David Phung – plunged into the murky water and pulled the woman to safety. “I couldn’t do it [the rescue] from the boat,” Phung explained to Baton Rouge CBS affiliate WAFB, “so I just jumped in.” Thanks to his quick action and determination, the little dog was saved too. Want to help the Louisiana flood victims? Check out this webpage. 

While playing in the waves of Miami Beach, husband and wife Sherrod Whittington and Kendra Smith were drug out to sea by a strong RIP tide. Even though he lost his wife’s hand in the roiling current, Whittington managed to find her again and when lifeguards reached the pair, he instructed them to save her first. Sadly, although Smith was rescued, Whittington drowned. Overcome with grief at the passing of her spouse of two years, Smith reflected: “He did the most amazing thing in the world that he gave his life for me... I’m going to honor him until the day I die because of that… He’ll always be my hero.”

When floods caused the Onion Creek Dam to fail in bus driver Clydell Willis’ home town of Del Valle, Texas, he parked his bus and entered the home of stranger who welcomed him in. However, after the living room wall collapsed from the water pressure, he ushered the woman and her family onto his bus. Driving door to door, Willis picked up the neighbors and drove them safety. Yet, cognizant that there were more trapped occupants in the town, he returned to the danger and rescued another bus full of people.  When NBC affiliate KXAN interviewed him, Willis declared: “We’re always taught everybody is one family…a lot of people know I’m a God-fearing man, and I know everything happens for a reason.”