Two children were in danger of being swept away by floodwater last week in Dallas when a school bus driver and monitor intervened.
Usually, bus driver Simone Edmond would not have taken the detour she took on Monday, August 15. She had received a call asking her to pick up a student who missed the bus, which sent Edmond and her bus monitor, Tekendria Valentine, in a different direction.
“We were just in the area, I was like maybe it was a waste of time, but then when we seen what we seen, I was like maybe that was God putting us there in that area for that reason,” Valentine told Fox 4.
They came upon a boy and a girl, two siblings, trapped in floodwater near Belt Line and the C.F. Hawn Freeway. The kids’ father was trying to assist them, but he was also struggling against the floodwaters.
“So, the mom ran out with a baby, and she was like, ‘Can you call 911, 911?'” Edmond recalled.
The school bus Edmond drives is for students with special needs, and it comes with detachable seatbelts used to secure wheelchairs. Edmond and Valentine knew time was of the essence, and they could not wait for first responders.
“The little boy was yelling out, ‘Help, help,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re stuck,'” recalled Valentine. “But then we started thinking like, maybe we can tie the seat belts together and, you know, like help them.”
Some local residents also showed up, and they helped the two women pull the children to safety.
“The little boy, he was so appreciative of us. He got out, and he was like, ‘Please, I want to give you a hug. I want to give you a hug,’ and I was like, ‘That’s fine, you can give me a hug,'” said Valentine.
Edmond and Valentine did not know the children they saved, but they felt God put them in the right place at the right time.
“Like I said, it had to be God to send us that way and to make us think because we knew they needed help,” Edmond stated.