SARASOTA, Fla.- Two Arkansas Linemen have helped restore power for communities after natural disasters before, but this time, they saved lives while on standby for Hurricane Helene.
It’s now been a week since Helene stormed into Florida as a Category four hurricane, taking at least 200 lives with hundreds still missing. Tommy Littell and Tom Nettrouer remember the night all too well.
“We thought we were going to be on standby, but we actually ended up going to work,” Littell said.
The search for the missing hits snags at every corner as Helene’s death toll tops 200
Littell and Nettrouer were at their hotel in Sarasota, Florida when the power went out. They then went to their truck to charge their phones.
“We were sitting in the truck and saw a guy run by,” Littell said. “We went down there to check it out, we looked over the wall and there was a guy hanging over the ledge by his fingertips.”
According to Nettrouer, the man was swept up in the flooding, which was nearly five to six feet high on the lower level of the area. The man had grabbed hold of the hotel’s side rail, which was hanging in by a thread.