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# Massachusetts Guard member helps a neighbor in flood

By Sgt. 1st Class Laura BerryMassachusetts National Guard

QUINCY, Mass. - While the remnants of Hurricane Florence continued to travel up the East Coast, Quincy was hit with flash flooding which resulted in some deep waters for commuters on Sept. 18.

 That was when motor transport operator Spc. Mathew Hernon, of the 1058th Transportation Company, Massachusetts Army National Guard, happened to see a car that had come across some of this deep water when he was out for a coffee run.

 He pulled over, assessed the situation and realized there was a woman still inside the car that was struggling to get out. The woman, Beth Cronin of Weymouth, Massachusetts, was disabled and could not get out of the car on her own. Hernon waded through the water, helped her out of the already flooded car and carried her to dry land.

 He tried to save what he could of the car when he helped her out of it, but when he went back for her purse, her car was already destroyed.

 "It's completely totaled," he said.

 Hernon went back to check on Cronin after the incident and she gave him a huge hug. The two actually live only about a mile away from each other.

 Although he has received a lot of attention for this, including the Quincy Police Department giving him a department coin for a job well done, Hernon brushed it off as something anyone should do.

 The story does not end there though. Now that Cronin does not have a car to get around to work and to visit her sick mother that is in the hospital, Hernon has decided to start a GoFundMe page to help raise some money toward buying her another car.

 "Be a good human, help other humans," Hernon said. "You don't know what they are going through." 

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2018 Hurricane Response

Hurricane Florence

2018 Hurricane Response