A Freestone County teenager says he's lucky to have walked away uninjured after a rural road washed out from below his truck.
On Saturday morning, 16 year-old Aaron Fletcher was driving on Amerada Ranch Road just north of Fairfield when his normal route to work fell out from below him.
"It felt like a bump," said Fletcher, "I hit the brakes. [The truck] started going to the right, and next thing I know I was upside down."
Floodwaters from the 20 or so inches of rain that hit the area had washed away the land from around a culvert below the road. Fletcher said by the time he realized what had happened, his truck rolled over into the washout and landed on its top. The teen was forced to escape through a window.
"The other side was a good five foot of water, I guess," he said.
He was able to get out of the hole and walk up the road to his aunt and uncle’s home for help.
Within hours, the truck sank deeper and was buried in the mud.
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Fletcher said a family friend plans to bring out a crane once the waters have subsided in the area so they can pull out the now totaled truck that the teen was hoping to sell.
Despite the frightening morning, Fletcher said he still went to work after climbing out of the hold.
Many roads in Freestone and Navarro Counties reopened Sunday morning including Interstate 45, but others like Amerada Ranch will likely need repairs from the weekend of weather.
