Texas high school player helps save woman, toddler from flooding

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

A Texas high school student helped save a woman and her young daughter Thursday from floodwaters caused by Tropical Storm Imelda.

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Jayden Payne, a football player at Aldine High School, was leaving school around midday as the storm was worsening, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Payne was walking with his mother back to her car, which she parked at a nearby grocery store, when they saw an SUV drive into a flooded ditch.

Payne sprang into action.

"I hurried up, threw my jacket off, I threw my shirt off," Payne told the Houston Chronicle. "I ran over there across in front of all the cars. I didn't care if all the cars stopped or not because I was more worried about their safety than my safety."

The woman opened her car door. Payne and two other bystanders helped her and her young daughter out of the water's strong current and got them to safety, KHOU reported.

"She was crying. She said 'You're my guardian angel,'" Payne told the Chronicle.

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