As Dowdle describes it, “They were right in the middle of both sides of the interstate. They went to the right, and then they redirected the wheel and shot off into the water, and they were sitting there trying to get their car back on the interstate, but they couldn't get it there.”
Dowdle and family’s car then slowed down so driver and four passengers could check whether those in the car that had gone off road were okay. But they couldn’t tell.
“It all happened so fast,” Dowdle said. “I didn’t have time really to react. I didn't know how many people were in the car. Could have been one person. I was going to do whatever I could to try to help them.”
As Dowdle left the car and was approaching he saw that the driver of the Tahoe had given up on trying to get back to the road. “That's when they decided it was too late to try to do anything, so they tried to open the doors, and as soon as they opened their doors, they started sinking. They really had to get out then. And there were two babies, three men, and a young lady. They were all very young,” Dowdle said.
When Dowdle got near the Tahoe, he realized he would be going into the water himself. “I run up to it close down near the water. I'm going to sink if I don’t take my boots off. I already had some heavy clothing on, a big old furry jacket. If that got wet, it would weigh 40 pounds.” Dowdle quickly took off the jacket and another couple items that would have made his work difficult.
“I take the boots off, and I jump off in the water. I'm trying to do everything I can. I grab the baby, I hand it to this other man that decided to help. And then I'm getting this other boy, he's about twice my weight, and I carry him back to the interstate. And then everybody else. They're standing on top of the roof of the Tahoe. It's fully submerged in water, but it's still up to their knees.”
In all, five people, including two very young children were rescued from the cold swift current because of the actions of Dowdle, but also those of his sister Madison Dillard, who teaches second grade at Clinton Primary School in Hope.
“She was right there, holding on to them and swimming them, too. So she deserves as much credit as I do.”
Asked how the water felt to go into, Dowdle said, “It was cold after I helped everybody out, but in the moment I think my adrenaline was going.”
By the time everyone in the Tahoe was safely on relatively dry ground, Dowdle said a police officer had arrived “and we knew from there that cops had them and they were going to be all right.” Other cars had also stopped by now. He could see a few people recording the scene with their phones.
In the conversations Dowdle has had since, he has come to see in retrospect how it was he and his family arrived on the scene at exactly the right time. “I feel good about it. I'd never say I’m some kind of superhero or anything like that. But I know that if it was any other person, they would have just been sitting out recording those people on the interstate. I'm just glad I was there at that moment, because originally, before we left Texarkana we were going to go get ice cream. We didn't though. Everybody decided no. It's like God told us that we needed to be there,” he said.
The whole thing also has helped Dowdle decide on a potential vocation to pursue. “Honestly, doing this makes me want to go down some kind of road or career that makes me want to see if I can be a firefighter or something. It just feels really good to know that I helped a lot,” he said.
Dowdle, the son of Keith and Amber Dillard, is set to graduate from Nevada High School with the Class of 2027.