With the recent warm up, meltdown, and heavy rain, the city of Pontiac is dealing with increasing floodwaters at the Vermilion River.

A woman fell into the river Tuesday afternoon and emergency officials blame Mother Nature on the heavy currents that swept her away and made rescue difficult.

Pontiac Police, Fire and area agencies worked quickly to rescue a woman who has fallen into the Vermilion River. While they worked, somebody was shooting video of the effort.
Who's behind the camera? Mayor Scott McCoy, who's been documenting emergency situations for training.

"I just so happened to be walking out. I had the camera in hand and I was about three blocks away and I happened to stop and catch this. It gets kinda personal when you run into a situation when it's a person that's in trouble...you're kinda nervous and you want to jump in and do something yourself," said McCoy.

But that's what the rescue crews are for. The woman tirelessly fought a rapid current for more than half a mile while emergency personnel made several failed attempts to throw her a lifeline...that's until she went under the Route 66 Bridge.

"One of the Pontiac city police officers had a life ring. He threw that as a last resort with direction from the guys telling him to go left and right because they couldn't see her. He threw it and they hit the target. She grabbed it. They started to pull her ashore," said Lt. Darrel Shoop of the Pontiac Fire Department.

Officials say the recent rains and melting snow made the current a rescue obstacle.

With more flooding anticipated, the fire department is keeping its water rescue unit rigged up in case of emergency.

"The Mill Street Dam is up 113 inches over there. The flood of 1982 was up 142 inches," remembered Lt. Shoop. "It's moving pretty quick."

And so did emergency personnel to rescue the woman.
And when they show this footage in training, Mayor McCoy says efforts like this get you an A+.

Emergency personnel are still trying to figure out how the woman fell into the water.
She was transported to OSF Saint James Hospital.
The Mayor McCoy met with other leaders in Pontiac Tuesday night to discuss the flooding situation.
Pontiac District 429 schools will be closed Wednesday due to the flooding.