Emergency personnel and members of the East Ridge Fire Rescue team stage to rescue Tim Nelson, a stranded man, from West Chickamauga Creek on February 4, 2016.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 2/4/16. Tim Nelson pulled from the water by East Ridge Fire Marshall Kenny Custer and East Ridge Fire Engineer Thomas Finch after he became stranded in the rising waters of West Chickamauga Creek near Camp Jordan on Thursday, February 4, 2016. Nelson is homeless and was swept 300-yards from the bridge he was living under suffering a minor case of Hypothermia. 
Emergency personnel and members of the East Ridge Fire Rescue team stage to rescue Tim Nelson, a stranded man, from West Chickamauga Creek on February 4, 2016.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 2/4/16. Tim Nelson is transported by ambulance to Parkridge East after being reduced by East Ridge Fire Rescue members when he became stranded in the rising waters of West Chickamauga Creek near Camp Jordan on Thursday, February 4, 2016. Nelson and Sandy are homeless and Nelson was swept 300-yards from the bridge he was living under suffering a minor case of Hypothermia. Tim Nelson ran up the slope alongside West Chickamauga Creek, shoving away entangling brush with his hands, his eyes fixed ahead on the parking lot where a woman waited.
He hurdled a guardrail, the last barrier in his way, before finally reaching the pavement where he embraced her. She wrapped her arms around his shivering body and held tight.
Emergency officials rescued the homeless man from the East Ridge creek on Thursday after rushing water swept him 300 yards downstream from underneath the bridge he calls home.
Rescuers speculated he may have been reaching for something when he fell into the water.
The ordeal lasted more than an hour after Nelson’s wife, Sandy Nelson, returned from an errand to find her husband was no longer at the bridge.