{"id":399622,"date":"2026-07-15T17:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/399622\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:59:10","slug":"california-truck-driver-recounts-dramatic-uvalde-flood-rescue-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/399622\/","title":{"rendered":"California truck driver recounts dramatic Uvalde flood rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

UVALDE, Texas \u2014 A California truck driver is grateful to be alive after floodwaters swept his 18-wheeler off a road near Uvalde, forcing him to climb onto the roof of his cab and wait for rescue as raging water surrounded him.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Pablo, 51, was driving from Fresno, Calif. to pick up a load Tuesday when he encountered rapidly rising floodwaters in Uvalde County. Video he recorded from the top of his truck has since spread across social media, capturing the terrifying moments as the powerful current carried his rig downstream.<\/p>\n

My truck\u2014it’s a heavy truck, and it was sweeping like nothing,” Pablo said in an interview with News 4\/FOX San Antonio.<\/p>\n

As water rushed into the cab, Pablo realized he had only seconds to act.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Tornado touches down near the Rim, causes damage to Palladium and apartments<\/a><\/p>\n

He said the floodwater was rising on the driver’s side, so he tried lowering the passenger-side window to escape. At first, the electric window wouldn’t move.<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘Oh shoot! I have to open my window,'” Pablo recalled. “Then the water started coming in.”<\/p>\n

Once the window opened, Pablo climbed out and onto the roof of the cab as the truck was swept away by the current.<\/p>\n

“At that point, I said, ‘You know what? I better do something,'” he said. “The truck started slipping, going fast.”<\/p>\n

The truck eventually became lodged between two trees, preventing it from being carried farther downstream and likely saving his life.<\/p>\n

When the truck stopped because it got stuck between two trees, I’m just amazed at how things can happen in a second,” Pablo said. “How things can change in one minute, one second.<\/p>\n

Officials said the cab of a typical 18-wheeler sits roughly 6 to 10 feet above the ground, underscoring just how deep and dangerous the floodwaters became.<\/p>\n

Pablo’s rescue was one of at least 25 high-water rescues carried out across Uvalde County by Wednesday morning as relentless rain triggered widespread flooding. During a morning briefing, county officials said rescue crews were still responding to additional emergencies as rivers and creeks continued to rise.<\/p>\n

Emergency officials have urged residents not to drive through flooded roads, warning that even large vehicles can quickly be overcome by fast-moving water.<\/p>\n

Pablo said surviving the ordeal left him with a renewed appreciation for how quickly life can change.<\/p>\n

“I’m just amazed,” he said. “How things can happen in a second.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UVALDE, Texas \u2014 A California truck driver is grateful to be alive after floodwaters swept his 18-wheeler off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-399622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}