A deadly flash flood in Texas has turned a former accountant into a national hero.
Scott Ruskan, a 26-year-old New Jersey native who once worked for KPMG, is being hailed as an “American hero” after saving 165 lives during his first-ever mission as a US Coast Guard rescue swimmer.
“This is what it’s all about, right? Like, this is why we do the job,” Ruskan told The New York Post after his rescue efforts in flood-ravaged central Texas.
"This is why we take those risks all time. This is why like Coast Guard men and women are risking their lives every day," he added.
The deadly flooding has claimed at least 82 lives, with many more still unaccounted for.
At Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp, the Guadalupe River rose a staggering 26 feet in just one hour, sweeping away vehicles, homes and campsites.
Petty Officer Ruskan, who joined the Coast Guard in 2021 after graduating from Rider University, was both the rescue swimmer on duty and the only triage coordinator on the ground.
He organized emergency medical treatment for evacuees while helicopters from the Coast Guard, National Guard and US Army airlifted victims.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised Ruskan’s efforts online, calling him an “American hero” whose courage “embodies the spirit and mission of the Coast Guard.”
But Ruskan deflected the praise. “Honestly, I’m mostly just a dude. I’m just doing a job,” he said. “Whoever it may be would have done the exact same thing in our situation.”
Stationed in Texas's Corpus Christi, Ruskan had only recently completed his training as a rescue swimmer after finishing Aviation Survival Technician school in Petaluma, California.
His first real deployment came on July 4, when Bryan Winchell, a search and rescue technician with Texas Task Force 1, called in a request for Coast Guard support.
“That’s a little bit outside our area of operation normally, but people were in danger, and we’re a good asset to try and help people out, and these guys were asking for help, so that’s kind of what we do,” Ruskan told The New York Post.
In an interview with Fox & Friends, Ruskan described surveying the scene from above. “Yeah, as far as right now, we’ve been getting our tasks from higher above, mostly from the Army as of right now. But a lot of it has just been large state triages, so we were at Mystic yesterday for a long period of time.”
“We noticed a large bunch of kids at a camping site and thought, ‘Awesome, that’s our destination,’” he added. His quick thinking and coordinated response helped ensure that almost all of the campers were safely evacuated.
Tragically, five young campers, ages 8 and 9, were confirmed dead. A counselor and 11 more girls were still missing as of Friday morning.
With limited helicopter capacity, Ruskan was left on the ground to guide triage operations.
He directed helicopters to pockets of survivors, treated the injured and comforted children and adults — many of whom were still in pajamas after fleeing their bunks overnight.
Over the course of several hours, Ruskan played a critical role in evacuating 165 people to safety.
“So we basically got the majority of the people out of Camp Mystic, which is awesome. And I feel like we did a lot of good that day, but obviously it's still super sad,” he said. “There’s still a lot of people missing and unaccounted for, so the mission’s not over yet. It’s not over for us.”
Social media users widely praised Ruskan’s bravery and commended his heroic efforts online.