HFD rescues man from rising Buffalo Bayou waters

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- As the water began to rise in downtown Houston, Stephen Konvicka said he started to panic.

"The river started rising I fell asleep. I woke up and the sidewalk was gone," Konvicka said.

The water was inching its way to him. He was surround. And within in minutes, he was ankle deep.

"I was going to climb the tree, but new the area, just visiting there didn't seem like a way to get out or escape," Konvicka said.

Konvicka made a the desperate call. Houston fire and rescue crews launched a boat into Buffalo Bayou and began looking for him, but it wasn't easy.

"It took us a while to find him, we finally heard him, we couldn't see him, we could hear him in the back of the trees so we put a rescue boat in the water and went up the water and brought him back," HFD District Chief David Swanson said.

Finally help was within arms reach. Crews rescued Konvicka and brought back to land.

"I was relieved, I was more relieved when I saw the search lights then the fire trucks came," Konvicka said.

Throughout the night, HFD responded to 28 water related calls. Some needed to be rescued from their cars. Konvicka said the flooding event reminded him of something far worse he also lived through.

"I've been through Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and you can't help but think about something like that at the time because people were on roof tops and they were climbing trees," Konvicka said.