Two men were swept into a drain as they worked in a manhole on Friday in Omaha, Nebraska.
Police and fire crews were dispatched to a downtown intersection after it was reported that the two workers had been swept away by the strong current.
One of the workers was pulled out of the manhole, but the other wasn't so lucky.
He traveled a mile through the sewers under the city before he was found clinging to a grate near the Missouri River over an hour-and-a-half later, according to ketv.com. His head was barely above the water.
Rescue workers had to cut the grate to get him out, and he and the other worker were taken to local hospitals for treatment.
Lt. Neal Bonacci of the Omaha Police Department confirmed the events of the incident.
The men went into a drain system near the Old Market at the corner of 19th and Howard sometime after 8am local time.
While the first was pulled out immediately, he confirmed, the second was found around 10:20am near Leavenworth Street.
Throughout the incident, first responders were systematically checking the manholes in the area.
A camera was sent into the drains to look for the missing man.
Traffic was restricted significantly in the area while crews worked.
Rain was the cause of the disastrous incident, and the weather patterns are expected to continue through the afternoon.
According to the Omaha Scanner Twitter page, which provides updates on police and fire activity in the region, the man who was swept away only suffered a few scratches.
Many users flocked to the comments of the original post and expressed their shock at the incident.
"So scary! Praying for all involved," wrote @Tamela_21.
"New fear activated," said @brynnjacobs2.
Many other users posted maps of the journey, remarking on how terrifying they believed it to be.
One joked that the clown from Stephen King's IT grabbed the two men and took them down into the depths.
The current temperature in Omaha is 59 degrees (15 degrees Celsius) — and the water coming down was likely colder when the man went under. Reports say he was cold when he emerged.
This isn't the only time Americans have found themselves trapped in storm in the past several years. In fact, the incidents might be more common than one would think.
Last March, a San Francisco man was rescued after being trapped in a storm drain for two days, reported CBS News.
And in February this year, a man slipped on mud and fell into a drain near a Walmart in Huntington, West Virginia, according to WSAZ3.
A US Department of Transportation report from July 2009 outlined safety tips and procedures for storm drains — both for those driving on roads that have them and for pedestrians walking over them. It recommends regular maintenance on the drains.
