Excavator tag team lifts people to safety across flooding river

Updated Jun 16, 2017

Screen Shot 2017 06 08 At 8 18 44 Am

We’re used to seeing videos of excavators rescuing fellow machines or being rescued themselves from watery situations. But this is the first time we’ve seen a water rescue video where the excavators are being used to save people.

According to the video description, posted to YouTube by Russia’s state-run media outlet RT, floodwaters and impassable roads left a group of people stranded on the banks of the Nyarmayaha River near Vorkuta in 2013.

Realizing that the outstretched arms of excavators could get them safely across, these folks hopped into one bucket, were lifted halfway across, hopped into a second bucket and were safely delivered on the other side of the river. Given the long line of stranded people, this operation likely took some time. Check out the video below.