Peoria woman swept into storm drain

PEORIA -- She has bruised legs and a hairline fracture in one foot, but 20-year-old Raeann Hamilton of Peoria knows her storm drain ordeal could have had a much worse ending.

A usually gentle stream that runs through the yard of her home turned into a whitecapped torrent from the floodwaters Saturday evening and somehow swept her into a three-foot-wide sewer opening at the edge of the yard.

Hamilton's roommate, Brad Purkel, said he walked out of their home just in time to see her head bob up for air and disappear into the storm drain.

Hamilton traveled about a block in the underwater drains before she saw the sky and managed to grab an overhanging branch and pull herself to safety.