Last November, when Lloyd Nelson was alerted that people were trapped inside a building across from his workplace on Union Street in St James, he did not stop to think of the dangers in swimming through the flooded street, nor was he deterred by the electric shocks he suffered. His only thought was to save the two women and four children, including a baby, as the water rose around them.

“Rain a fall; everything happen so fast. Car start wash dung, place a flood out and during the process everybody a shout out ‘Over deh suh, over deh suh’ and we look in the building. People were trapped inside there and me reacted and went over there,” Nelson recounted to the Jamaica Observer on Monday after receiving the Badge of Honour for Gallantry at the National Honours and Awards Ceremony at King’s House in St Andrew.

The 38-year-old barber, who said he he had been in the process of retrieving personal belongings from inside the salon where he worked, jumped into action and swam across to the auto shop where he discovered, shortly after, that Jevon Lewis — the first person who got there in an effort to help the trapped people — had been injured.

“At first when I got over there Lewis, who was first on the scene, he got electrocuted. Somehow he couldn’t walk, so he had to hold on to my back while I proceeded with one of the children up to the wall where I could hand them over [to people waiting to pull them to safety]. ”

Nelson recalled that he, too, received electric shocks a few times after touching a gas drum while trying to help the trapped individuals. He said he took off his merino, rolled it onto his fist and knocked out a glass door to create an opening for the flood victims to get out.

He said he took out the children and swam with them some distance away to a wall which was connected to an adjoining building. There they were assisted out of the water before another man, Aristel St Joy, came and assisted him in rescuing the two women.

According to Nelson, the water was about eight feet high in some parts and rising. That prevented him from again swimming towards the wall, so he had to devise a strategy to get the women to safety.

That strategy involved St Joy climbing the grille at the auto shop and helping him to push up the women onto the roof of the building.

“It was really difficult, because it was eight feet of water at the time and a lot of cars, debris and jet skis were washing down in the water coming down at me. I had to dodge them to proceed in carrying out the rescues,” Nelson said.

“I can’t estimate how far away the wall was; it was a far distance. But I had to bounce on my feet and I had to hold them [the people being rescued] above me so that nuh water nuh drown them. The water was at my neck and the water was rising. At one point the water cover me and I felt I was going to drown, but I recovered and push myself up and continue doing what I was doing,” Nelson recalled further.

He said the rescue was extremely dangerous as one of the women suffered serious chop wounds on her right foot and the sole of her left foot had been cut open.

“It’s a miracle I didn’t suffer any bruise that day. I had on a slippers and throughout the whole process it never came off my foot, no shoes, just slippers,” he said.

However, despite being hailed as a hero for his courageous act, Nelson said he does not see himself that way. He was, though, elated with his award.

“I am feeling very honoured. It’s a pleasure to be recognised for doing something good because doing good is always good,” he said.

“It pass special, it’s extraordinary; mi nuh know how to put it, but mi give thanks for being here and give thanks for the people dem who we save,” he said.

According to Nelson, after rescuing the small group he didn’t think much about what he had done.

“It didn’t really soak in until further down in the week when people start see mi every weh mi walk and say ‘You a hero’, ‘You a hero’, so that was when it kinda soak in. Mi seh like ‘yeah, a really something’, I know I did something good but it wasn’t like I wanted credit for doing good. I was just being normal and saving somebody that was in danger because I would like somebody to do that for me,” Nelson reasoned.

In retrospect, he said he has really come to appreciate the significance of what he and the other two men — who were similarly awarded — did.

“If you did give it couple more minutes the building would have been covered and if we didn’t save them in time they would a drown, everybody would a dead, even the baby,” he said.