A young man narrowly missed being crushed by a wall as floodwaters burst into his family home after being battered by Hurricane Ida.

Ankle-deep water had already covered the basement floor of the Valle house in New Jersey last week and the family was desperately trying to clean it up.

But instead of the situation improving, Ida’s floodwaters broke through a wall -trapping and nearly drowning half of the family downstairs.

Shocking security camera footage shows the young man walking through the room to get to the staircase when all of a sudden the water started rushing in.

He made it up the stairs, narrowly escaping without any injuries, but his mother and younger brother became trapped in the basement.

In an interview with NBC New York, mum Janice Valle shared details about the life-and-death moment.

She said: ‘My son called his father to say goodbye to him as he thought he was going to die. Thank God my son made it to the stairs and then the wall caved in and the water came.’

It reached 1,200 homes, causing more than $50 million in damages according to Governor Kathy Hochul.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article