Boy, 7, Swims for an Hour After Dad, Sister Swept Away

Chase Poust, 7, was swimming in Florida's St. Johns River on Friday along with his 4-year-old sister, Abigail, when a strong current caused Abigail to lose her grip on the boat in which their dad was fishing. Chase let go, too, in an attempt to help her, but he couldn't stop her from drifting away, CNN reports. Their dad, Steven, quickly jumped in the water himself, but the current carried him away as well. "I told them I loved [them] because I wasn’t sure what’s going to happen," Steven Poust tells News4Jax. Then he instructed Chase, who wasn't wearing a life vest, to swim to shore while he tried to grab Abigail, who was wearing one.

It took Chase an hour, but he did just that, running to the first house he could find to get help. "The current was going the opposite way of going to the boat and the shore so it was very hard to swim that way," the boy says. He alternated between floating on his back and doggie paddling. Meanwhile, his father and sister drifted a mile and a half to two miles down the river, but were ultimately rescued by firefighters. All three are doing just fine now. (More uplifting news stories.)