Worker swept away in Sierra foothills pipeline rupture recovering from broken bones, collapsed lung

SIERRA FOOTHILLS, Calif. -- Weeks after a ruptured pipeline sent water blasting through the Sierra foothills, new details are emerging about one of the people caught in the flood.

Fifty-nine-year-old Howard, who works as a security guard at the New Colgate Powerhouse, had to be rescued by helicopter after being swept into the Yuba River. He is now recovering from multiple broken bones.

His wife, Kathy, said he was missing for more than three hours after a large pipe burst at the powerhouse on Friday the 13th.

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"He heard rumbling and thought it was an earthquake, and he went out to see," Kathy said. "He's seen the wires, you know, like with the earthquake move, and he looked up and the gush of water was already coming.."

Howard plummeted 35ft into the Yuba River, churning out of control in the cold water as if he was caught in a washing machine.

"He got swept to a big rock in the middle of the river, and then from that he prayed, God save me," Kathy said. "And about that time another gush of water shot him across the riverbank."

Rescuers with CAL FIRE spotted Howard from a helicopter and pulled him to safety. He nearly drowned and coded for 8 minutes before medics resuscitated him.

Howard suffered a collapsed lung, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken knee and deep cuts.

"I call it rock rash, you know how people get road rash," Kathy said. He has rock rash from head to toe."

"He's alive, and that's all that really matters to me," Kathy said. "He can be broken all he wants to be, but he's here."

Kathy said when Howard woke up three days later after the incident, he wrote her a note with the words "I heart you."

"It's all I told him the whole time is I love you. I love you. You got this. You got this." she said.

Reflecting on the date of the accident, Kathy said the family has a new perspective.

They were not superstitious but are now following this accident that happened on Friday the 13th.