Man survives being sucked 500-feet through flooded drainage pipe: 'I could not breathe'

A Trussville man is lucky to be alive after he was sucked into a drainage pipe during heavy storms Friday night.

Drew Owen says that when the rain began to pour, his yard was flooding, and his kids' soccer balls began to float toward U.S. Highway 11. He ran after them, and that's when he was pulled underwater.

"It was right here," he said, pointing to the drainage ditch that he dropped into. "And that's where I think I went down there. And then I went to come back up. And that's when the pipes sucked me under."

Logan Martin Lake boat fireIntense video shows moments after lightning strike sets boat ablaze on Logan Martin Lake Owen described the experience as disorienting, feeling like he was holding his breath for several minutes.

"I think it was probably around 30 to 45 seconds. And it was. So the water was flowing so hard, and that whole pipe was nothing but water. So I could not breathe or anything. And I didn't have time to get, like, gasp for air when it happened, because it happened so fast," he said.

He traveled more than 500 feet, under Highway 11 and some railroad tracks, believing that he would not survive.

"I was just praying that it was going to drop at some point soon, because I didn't know if it was, the pipe was going all the way down Highway 11, or it was going to drop two minutes from now. I honestly was saying my goodbyes," Owen said.

Owen and his wife, Kasey, are now advocating for safety measures to prevent similar incidents. They hope that the city or state will install grates over the pipes so no one else goes through something like this.

"We just want this to be a safer area to prevent this from happening again to an adult, to a child, to anyone in our area," Kasey Owen said.

Despite suffering cuts and scrapes and losing his shoes and shirt in the rushing water, Owen is okay and grateful to have survived.

Trussville's mayor visited the site and noted that the pipe was installed by the state, with some affected areas on private property. The city's public works department is investigating ways to prevent flooding and improve pipe safety.

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