Woman reported dead in flood reunites with rescuer

DETROIT — When her car started filling up with water, reaching her shoulders, Jena David thought she was a goner.

So did police, who mistakenly reported her dead in last week's devastating floods.

But David survived the disaster, thanks to a good Samaritan who stopped to help.

"I think it was a guardian angel watching out for me," said David, 30.

David hasn't seen her rescuer since she got trapped in the floods. But the two soon will reunite in Los Angeles, where they will appear on "The Doctors" syndicated television show. The shows airs in Detroit at 10 a.m. Tuesday on WXYZ-TV.

"I'm excited," she said late Monday about sharing her ordeal with the public. "I'm very blessed that something like this can still happen, that someone can come out of nowhere."

Here, according to David, is what happened that ill-fated day.

"I had a really bad feeling that morning," recalled David.

The psychology graduate student who considers herself very religious, had a dream the night before the heavy rains drenched metro Detroit. She remembers the time. It was 1:47 a.m. She saw an image of Jesus Christ in a mirror, and her face was upside down in the mirror. She believes the dream was a warning that something bad was coming.

And then the rains hit.

David was among hundreds of motorists who got stranded that day. She was returning home to Sterling Heights after turning in a thesis paper at Wayne State State University when her Ford Focus got stuck in deep water near Van Dyke and 13 Mile in Warren.

"I remember the water just rising," recalled David. She was on the phone with her fiancé, panicking as the water reached her shoulders. Her car door wouldn't open. She remembers thinking: "I'm going to die."

"I was terrified," David said. "I was in panic mode."

But then a strange man appeared.

"I remember him grabbing me and saying, 'Get out of the car,' and he put me on his shoulder," said David, who remembers grabbing her purse.

The rest is a blur.

David eventually found out that the man took her to a Buddy's Pizza, where rescue crews took over. She was unconscious and transported to the hospital. That night, she was released.

The next day, she got a text message from her twin brother telling her that news outlets were reporting her dead.

"And I'm freaking out. I said, 'What do you mean?' .... No. It can't be me! Just let me look into it,' " said David. "I felt really scared."

Why police declared her dead is unknown. The Warren Fire Department later clarified that she was unconscious, not dead, when they took her to the hospital.

Meanwhile, David eventually found her rescuer: Dustin Rowen, an optometrist from Canton. She tracked him down on Facebook after finding one of his comments on the Detroit News website.