James Bowen’s 11-day-old-Nike walking shoes were soaked, but he knew someone had to do something.

He walked into the cold, rushing water, and soon was wading in it. Two women watched Bowen from the dry concrete and called 911 on a cell phone. 

Bowen, graduate student in physics, wasn’t supposed to take the route he did Aug. 11.

It was day before the second half of his qualifying exam for the doctoral program — a test he didn’t pass the first time. Bowen said he was just trying to get campus to study one last time before the biggest test of his life.

He heard about the Ames flooding from a neighbor also in the physics department. He turned down the offer for a ride and stubbornly took his bike for a ride to find a possible route, but soon found that he would have to drive his car to get to where he wanted to go.

He approached the overpass over Highway 30, east of the Skunk River, when he saw a car that was swept away by the flood water on the south side of the overpass.

Bowen knew he had to act. 

As the white Ford came to a floating rest, Bowen reached the car and terrified woman inside.

The water was now up past her waist and she couldn’t open the door. Bowen desperately attempted to get her out of the car. After pushing with his legs and pulling with his arms, Bowen finally opened the door; water rushed in.

“Can you swim?” Bowen asked the woman.

She shook her head, and Bowen unlatched her seatbelt.

While water crept up toward his neck, Bowen tried swimming with the woman to dry land. The water got shallower, but the current was still strong.

He tried to walk with her through the 3-inch-deep stream and shielded the exhausted woman from the current with his back to it.

Shaken by the experience, the woman gave Bowen a hug and thanked him. The paramedics came and handled the situation from there.

That’s the last Bowen saw of the woman.

A few days later, Bowen got a voicemail. It was from the woman he had rescued. He still doesn’t know much about her.

“Alice is her first name,” Bowen said. “I can’t remember her last name — it begins with an E. She told me that the road had been dry 10 minutes before she drove over it, and I got the impression that she didn’t think it was that deep.”

Bowen anxiously awaits the results of his qualifying exam; people have suggested that he should pass it simply because he saved someone’s life, but Bowen laughs it off.

“What it came down to was that someone had to do something,” Bowen said. “I just did my best, that’s the best way to put it.”