ELLICOTT CITY, Md. - A moment of heroism was caught on camera during the devastating floods in Ellicott City, Maryland.
The video, taken by David Dempster, shows he and several other men forming a human chain to rescue a woman inside her car as it was being swept away in rushing flood water Saturday night.
"Since I was filming, I just had my camera in my left hand and I was at the back of the chain," Dempster told FOX 5. "And we were all just holding on, really secure. I was getting ready to pitch my camera and grab onto something if we started to slip."
The man at the front of the chain slipped into the flood water at one point before the men grasped hands.
"When he went down, I thought, 'That's it, he's gone,'" Dempster said.
The man was able to get back up, but Dempster said seeing him nearly get swept away caused the woman in the car to hesitate as people urged her to get out.
"You're not going to make it!" someone calls to her in the video.
She finally gets out of the car and everyone in the chain is pulled to safety.
"If she went down that street, that would've been it," Dempster said. "I don't think anybody would have lived through that."
The woman was saved in front of Dempster's wife's art gallery which was among the Main Street businesses destroyed.
"I've been overwhelmed by the outpouring from people," said Sara Arditti, Dempster's wife. "They've just been so supportive and kind. Offering to help each other in any way possible."
Arditti is the one who shared her husband's video on Facebook, where it had been viewed more than million times as of Sunday night.
With all the images of destruction from Ellicott City, none so clearly show the heart of the community.
"No matter what else happens, that will be the best thing to come out of this crisis," Arditti said.
Watch the entire video below.