Woman, 87, rescued after car plunges into flooded creek

An 87-year-old woman was fortunate to be alive Thursday after her car spun off the road and plunged into a flooded creek near Holly Springs.

She was lucky because Cherokee County firefighter Michael Axford had just left work and he and three other passersby saw the near-death accident, said Tim Cavender, spokesman for the Cherokee fire department.

The four good Samaritans got the woman out of the car, Cavender said. Then other firefighters arrived — apparently somebody had called 911 — and deployed a 35-foot ladder to help get the woman up the steep bank, he said.

The accident and rescue happened at 8:30 a.m. at Toonigh Creek on Holly Springs Parkway near the Home Depot, Cherokee County Battalion Chief Ricky Collett said.

Collett said that the rescue “was truly a Christmas miracle.”