It appears that Pennywise has graduated from balloons and is now using soccer balls to tempt adults into storm drains.
During a storm that flooded a local neighbourhood in Alabama, a father walked into the downpour to grab his kid’s soccer ball. The streets were submerged in water, and the road beneath was covered. Drew Owen couldn’t see where he was placing his feet.
“Of course, I could not see anything; it was dark, and this was nothing but water. But the ball was somewhere in this area. So, I went to step to go get it, and when I did, this ditch is steep and I stumbled into the water,” he told WRBC.
As he slipped, a huge undercurrent, sucking at the flood water, pulled the man into a storm drain. Like a bit of debris, he was sucked under the water and into the drainage system. “Of course, I could not see anything; it was dark, and this was nothing but water. But the ball was somewhere in this area. So, I went to step to go get it, and when I did, this ditch is steep and I stumbled into the water.”
Terrifying Tubing Time For Traumatised Storm Drain Dad
Despite the man’s big size and weight, he was pulled into the storm drain with the flood water like he was a twig. And so began a terrifying ordeal in which he was unable to breathe, unaware of where the drain ended, and being pulled along in the dark.
“The water was flowing so hard, and that whole pipe was nothing but water,” he recalled. “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.”
The Alabama man fully believed that he was about to die in the storm drain. He held his breath, but he didn’t know if he would be in there for 50 feet or five miles. Thankfully, the pipe was only 500 feet long, and the water was rushing fast.
Somehow, he managed to hold his breath and survive the trip through the flooded storm drain. Eventually, he was kicked out the other end and managed to pull himself to safety. Now, he is an advocate for storm drain awareness, hoping nobody else has to endure his horrifying storm drain log flume.