Alabama man recounts harrowing experience being sucked down drainpipe during storm

TRUSSVILLE, Ala. (WIAT) — It happened fast.

That’s the way Drew Owen described the feeling of going from standing in his flooded yard to being sucked down into a drainpipe over the weekend, going so quickly that he didn’t even time to catch his breath.

Owen, who lives in Trussville’s Peppertree subdivision, said his harrowing ordeal began while trying to retrieve his children’s soccer balls after heavy rainfall flooded his yard Friday night.

“When I stepped right here, the water was right here and I went to come back up and I got sucked into that pipe,” Owen said. “All I thought about was my kids weren’t going to have a father, my wife was going to be a widow, and literally the next day was my dad’s funeral, and I was going to die the day before it.”

Owen was able to avoid a turn for the worst by grabbing a tree branch when he came out the other end of the drainpipe, getting out of harm’s way. Owne credits his late father with being his guardian angel.

Mayor Buddy Choat, who was out in the neighborhood with the Director of Public Works to survey the flooding damage Monday, said the city is working with the Alabama Department of Transporation, which owns that drainpipe, to see what can be done.

Owen said he would like to see a grate placed over that drainpipe.

In a statement to CBS 42 Monday, ALDOT confirmed it would be sending a crew to assess the drainpipe.