MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — Late October, a 9-1-1 call was made for help during Hurricane Zeta.

“I had him on the phone,” says Tryson Deno. “I was dodging power lines, jumping over live wires, trying to get here.” But Deno could do little for his son stranded on the causeway. The water was too high, the wind, too strong.

And then, one more call this time answered by Joshua Gibbs. “We were dealing with 20 to 30 knot gusts maybe stronger than that. Wave action over here we were seeing three to fives in places.”

Gibbs and his boat Lieutenant Brandon Thompson were able to find Deno’s son. “We were able to move around here and he was on the back porch, put a PFD on him, had him get in the boat with us and we were able to deliver him safely back to his father.”

“They just jumped feet first and went on out there and took care of business,” says Deno.

Now, a month later. “I definitely appreciate you man I didn’t get a chance to thank y’all,” the rescuer and the father meet. “He wasn’t leaving until he saw something good done and he saw his son back on dry land,” says Gibbs. He knows what he does is dangerous but that’s not what scares him. “The thought of not being able to get to somebody. The thought of not to be able to help somebody. The thought of being just short of being able to finish that mission or that operation, that is what terrifies me,” says Gibbs.

At least one father has Gibbs to thank for being the guy that never leaves the badge at the office and for Joshua Gibbs that is award enough. “To see the actual affects of helping people. It’s amazing and I think that’s enough reward alone.”

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