Six Amish (& Horse) Rescued After Buggy Swallowed By Flood

That’s a scary-looking photo above. Luckily, all made it out okay – including the horse. The Conway, Missouri Volunteer Fire Department rescued a buggy full of Amish Sunday when their vehicle was engulfed by a flood. The Conway area is home to a small Amish settlement. Here is the report via ky3.com:

According to the Conway Volunteer Fire Department, they had two water rescues this morning, the first being six members of the Amish community, including some children, and their horse were safely rescued from flooded waters on ZZ Highway in Radar, Mo.

No other details on this rescue in that report. Though the post on the Conway Fire Department page included this: “DO NOT DRIVE INTO FLOOD WATERS!” So we can safely assume that’s what happened here.

By the wording and circumstances I first assumed this must be a family (parents and children) – but according to this comment on the fire company’s Facebook page (take with a grain of salt) they were all children, the oldest a teenager:

Cindy K. Elmore Bryan
It sounds like they were all kids of assorted ages. Maybe the oldest was like 16 or 17! Just misjudged the depth of the water, should have saw how swift it was. The driver made a bad decision, we ALL have before! God was watching over all of them & the horse! It really was a miracle that they all lived!

Scary situation and Cindy puts it well. If this was all young people, it’s quite possible they made a poor decision, thinking they could go through what may have looked like passable water.

Although going by the photos, I’m not sure how you would think this is passable…though you can see the yellow double line extend at least partway through the flooded area, which may have been deceptive.

Another factor may also be the nature of buggy travel itself. If you are in a car and come upon a roadblock, it’s easy to drive a few minutes to get around it. Not so in a buggy.

That few minutes’ detour for a car might take an hour or more for a horse-and-buggy. That might also contribute to a decision to “go for it”. But you have to respect high water conditions.

Not the first Amish flood rescue

This isn’t the only Amish flood rescue we’ve seen. One happened in 2019 in frigid conditions in Ohio. A 17-year-old Amish girl was rescued in Wayne County after high water swept her buggy off the road.

That was a really dangerous situation because it was January, and temps were around freezing or below. The horse ended up dying as a result, though the girl was safely rescued. Here’s a photo from that rescue to give you an idea:

And sadly this latest happening does bring to mind not one, but two similar stories in Kentucky which ended much more tragically.

Some of you might recall the case of the buggy which overturned in a flooded creek in 2020 after attempting to cross. Five Amish children lost their lives then. An eerily similar thing had had happened in 2011 in another part of the state, in which four Amish children perished.

So this Missouri family must be counting their blessings…and can count this as a lesson, learned the hard way, but not-to-be-forgotten.