(CNN)Jason Barnes was in the process of losing plenty -- his car, his new business -- when he put his life on the line, too.
Barnes was standing Saturday in a torrential storm and watching the worst flood in memory in flood-prone Ellicott City, Maryland, in what was quickly becoming one of the worst nights of his life.
He had just fled his store, All Time Toys, his lifelong dream, as it filled with water. He spotted his Mercury Grand Marquis floating with other cars down Main Street.
Just as suddenly, Barnes" thoughts weren"t focused on his store, his car and his future.
He saw a woman trapped in a car that had washed down the street and now was stuck and being battered by water cascading over its top and hood.
He wouldn"t even have been there to be the hero except he turned his car around in the downpour to go back to ensure his inventory was safe.
The store backs up to a creek, so flooding is always a concern. Within two hours, 6 inches of rain reportedly fell, which is nearly double the normal rainfall in the county for the entire month of July, according to state figures.
In the store"s basement, Barnes saw the merchandise -- much of it for the eBay sales -- was off the floor, and he figured it would be safe.
Barnes quickly realized he was wrong. He saw water leaking through the back door from cracks 4 feet off the ground. The door burst open as he was climbing out of the basement, he said.
"It just blew in," Barnes said. "The water just pushed everything in. It went from about 3 inches of water to probably 3 feet in a matter of seconds."
The businessman got upstairs and went outside to where his fellow shopkeepers were watching -- and filming cars -- floating down Main Street. He saw his Mercury washing down the road.
It was a bad sign. He had closed on the business June 1 and bought the 1997 car -- "I love the old Grand Marquises" -- a month ago.
"I threw everything I had into this to get things rolling," he said. "And two months later it"s all floating down the river."
Community has his back
Now, Barnes said, he is on the recipient end of the good graces of others. His bank has already reached out to him, and he says the outpouring of support from the community has been overwhelming.
That gives him peace of mind.
"It"s been absolutely amazing to watch this community pull together," he said. "It"s you know, pretty rough. I lost my car, lost my shoes, lost my business, but it will come back."
The one thing he learned when his wife and three children saw the rescue video that went viral on news outlets and social media was they didn"t want to lose him.
His wife looked at him and yelled first: "Don"t ever do anything like that again."
Then his 4-year-old daughter piped up: "Mommy said, "Don"t do that again." Don"t do that again!"
The video indicates Barnes is a man who might have trouble not running to help. Fortunately for family peace, there probably won"t be another time he has to wade through a flood to rescue someone in a car.
But if there is, he will probably delete any videos.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/01/us/ellicott-city-maryland-flood-rescue/index.html
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