Don Austin didn’t consider first moving his work gear when he saw signs that drivers might need help.
Austin has lived in his Prairie Village home near 68th and Mission for 14 years and remembered a 2010 flood that covered Mission Road.
The same scenario was setting up just past his steps Friday night.
“Mission Road became Brush Creek in a matter of minutes,” said Austin.
Over the next 10 minutes, four cars were stuck in the rushing, chest-deep water on Mission Road. Only one driver made it to safety on their own.
“I went car to car, told them I got ya,” said Austin.
The two-tour Iraq veteran saved three people from floating cars that night, including a 16-year-old in a Jeep.
Photo of vehicles in high water courtesy Don Austin
“It didn’t matter what it was. It could have been Bigfoot the monster truck and it wasn’t making it through it,” said Austin.
He also pulled Sarah Jurcyk to safety.
“My windows would not open and there was too much water pressure to open the doors,” said Jurcyk. “Very quickly the water was up to my waist.”
Austin pulled Jurcyk from her sunroof and carried her on his back to dry land. She called him her guardian angel.
“She looked up at me like, ‘I needed this,’” said Austin. “She said her next car is going to have a sunroof, too.”
Flooding damaged Austin’s work gear
While Austin was rescuing the three stranded drivers, the water was ruining $8,000 in photography equipment stored in his garage.
Patrick Mallahan lives nearby and heard about Austin’s heroics and the damage.
“For somebody to go out and risk his life to save some other people and just let thousands of dollars in gear sit and ultimately get ruined just for the sake of those 3 people motivated me,” said Mallahan.
Mallahan never met Austin, but he started a GoFundMe page with a goal of $5,000, the cost of Austin’s FEMA flood insurance deductible. Within a day donors exceeded that goal.
“It’s just been overwhelming and I’m speechless,” said Austin.
But there’s a hitch. Austin said his FEMA insurance doesn’t cover any of the items damaged, so he isn’t making a claim, and therefore is still $3,000 short of fully replacing his gear with the GoFundMe money.
Despite this, he said he didn’t consider protecting himself before assisting others.
“[That’s] not what soldiers are about. It’s about taking care of business that needs to be taken care of and you come second. Soldiers always come second.”
The people he rescued surely think otherwise.
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
