Dad, his children’s Christmas presents and taxi driver rescued from flood
https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/25/essex-fl ... -15824110/
Two men and a host of Christmas presents had to be rescued from a car filling with water on Christmas morning.
The incident in Essex saw a taxi get caught in three and a half feet of floodwater and start sinking, as a father desperately scrambled to keep presents for his children dry.
Dramatic images from around 8.30am show the car submerged after heavy rain overnight between Billericay and Ingatestone – but fire crews in the area stepped in to save the festive gifts.
The Essex Fire and Rescue Service used a boat to rescue the men and the gifts, thought to include a small motorbike.
Pictures show one man putting a stocking and what appears to be a reindeer gift onto the roof of the car, as another looks on while balancing just above the floodwater.
He seems to be stood on the edge of a barrier separating a ford and the River Wid at Buttsbury Wash.
The images were taken by freelance photographer Stephen Huntley.
He explained: ‘The taxi driver was looking really glum. As his car filled with water, it sank down. It was flowing quite quickly there’, the Daily Express reported.
‘I told the (passenger) not to move. He was wet, but more concerned about his Christmas presents getting to his children.
‘He was saying, “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe we’ve got stuck in the water” and that he had to get his presents to his children.
Mr Huntley had been out getting some early morning shots of the flooding and paid tribute to the response of the emergency services, who got the men to safety.
