To Save His Beloved Animals From Advancing Floodwaters, The Owner Paddles Out on His “Surfboard.”

Pictures of a man saving five cherished horses from catastrophic floods in his rural town—the result of the greatest storm to hit New South Wales in a century—have surfaced online.

Near Dungog, in the NSW Hunter region, one of the hardest hit areas in the state, where three people died in the severe weather, four houses were washed away, and the town received the most rainfall it had in a century, Steve Spowart assisted the horses’ owner, Sonia Sharrock, in leading the animals to safety.

While wearing a black wetsuit, Mr. Spowart paddled his surfboard past trees, shrubs, and fences that were inundated in floodwater that was nearly as high as his shoulders to where the horses were stuck. The moving pictures display his focus as he approaches the animals and his compassion as he tries to lead them out of the murky, deep water.

In one image, the man is thrown backwards into the water while a terrified brown horse tries to escape. The guy and the dog’s owner, Ms. Sharrock, who is wearing a green jacket, then make an effort to quiet the animal so they may lure it toward them without using any reins. They are pulling a chestnut and two white horses out of the flood as a little lad waits in shallow water with a tin motor boat.