The Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) has named Mercer Transportation truck driver Michael Dorsey, from Porter, Texas, a Highway Angel for using his trailer to attempt to keep flood victims afloat and alive.
On Sept. 26 around 10 a.m. in Erwin, Tennessee, Dorsey was loading his flatbed with piping for a company called Dura-Line in an industrial park. He was informed that flood waters were coming. The town of Erwin was hit by flooding that devastated the region after Hurricane Helene made landfall, unleashing historic levels of rain.
The industrial park is just a few hundred feet from the Nolichucky River, which swelled with a rush of water comparable to nearly twice what cascades over Niagara Falls, according to USA Today. As Dorsey was finishing loading his truck, water was flowing and 10 people from a neighboring business asked if they could climb atop his truck to find refuge from the flood.
Michael Dorsey
Dorsey also offered shelter to one frightened woman he called “Miss Bertha,” by allowing her to sit in his truck.
“She sat in the cab with me and like 15 or 20 minutes later, we were overrun by water,” Dorsey said. “It flipped my truck -- I ended up having to lift her out of my truck.”
Dorsey and another man helped put Miss Bertha on the trailer, as the water rose quickly.
The waters were so strong that they separated the trailer from the truck and carried the 12 terrified hangers-on downstream. At one point, the truck capsized, and Dorsey and the others floated in the water, hanging onto the materials that had previously been strapped to the truck.
“Something hit me in the head and knocked me out,” Dorsey said. “When I fell in the water, I guess it was so cold that it brought me back.”
Dorsey and others rode the current until they were able to grab onto a bush in the flood and hang on. Eventually they were rescued by emergency personnel. Of the 12 people who sought refuge on the truck, six survived, Dorsey said. Miss Bertha’s body has not been found.
“The most terrifying part was just watching the water come, rise as we were just sitting, not knowing what to expect,” he said.
A former Marine, Dorsey lost everything, and he is dealing with his insurance company now. He also struggles with pain in his head and neck, and numbness in his legs and feet.
“I can’t hardly sleep because I keep thinking about Miss Bertha and all of the people that died,” Dorsey said. “If I wouldn’t have been there, those people that survived wouldn’t have made it -- it would have been impossible. God had me there for a reason.”
[Related: I-40 closure: Temporary repair in the works]
