A west Michigan woman, five months pregnant, rescued three children from being swept away by the waves of Lake Michigan on Tuesday.
Alyssa Dewitt was at the First Street Beach Pier in Manistee, Michigan, with her family when she heard the children yelling for help and saw them waving their arms in the water below.
“I promise you. I am not going to let you die out here. I will get you out of this water,” Dewitt told the children, she said.
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Lake Michigan is known for its dangerous waters. Police most recently identified the body of 27-year-old Dakota Yergeau on April 3, who drowned in the lake March 28, the South Bend Tribune reported.
Fifty-six people drowned in the lake throughout 2020, according to the South Bend Tribune, which cited data from the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project.
Dewitt called 911, but she knew it would take too long for first responders to arrive when she saw that the children were unable to keep their arms above the surface of the water, she told WPGN.
“I don’t think that [the 911 operator] could hear me. I couldn’t hear them. The best I could do was scream into the phone we needed help, there were kids drowning,” she said.
She laid on her stomach on the pier and reached for the children, all younger than 15, who were overpowered by rip currents while swimming in the lake.
Dewitt grabbed hold of the children. When she was pulling them out of the water, the waves would strike the children and push them back in, she said.
“This part will stick with me forever. This girl looked at me and said, ‘I’m going to die.’ It makes me cry every time I think about it,” Dewitt said, according to MLive.
“I pulled every single one of them out over that pier wall. I don’t know how, but I did,” she said.
Just after Dewitt pulled the children out, police arrived.
“Thankfully, all parties involved sustained minor injuries, but this is the type of event that without the actions of this heroic young lady could have easily turned out differently,” Manistee Police Chief Josh Glass told WPBN.
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After rescuing the children, Dewitt went to the hospital to get herself and her baby checked out.
Both are safe and healthy.
