MANISTEE, Mich. — Three young girls are alive today thanks to Alyssa DeWitt's quick thinking.
"One of the little girls looked at me and she said, 'I'm going to die,'" says DeWitt. "I think that was, like, my big turning point right there."
On Tuesday, DeWitt headed to the First Street Beach Pier in Manistee with her three kids, and one on the way. She's five months pregnant.
At first, she hesitated to even stay at the beach.
"The wind was so strong and the sand was whipping really hard so I almost didn't go," says DeWitt.
She says she decided to stick around because something told her she needed to. That turned out to be true, when she saw three girls struggling to swim.
"I knew immediately. Like my heart dropped," she remembers. "I was like they are in trouble."
Her first thought was to call 911.
"But at that point, I knew that if I waited or I sat there and tried to make contact with 911 and see if they could hear me, those kids would have drowned," she says.
DeWitt ran out on to the pier and managed to stretch out to pull all three girls to safety.
"I said, I am not going to let you die, I'm going to get you out of this water I promise you," recalls DeWitt.
She hopes her story will teach others the importance of safety at the beach.
"Those waves are fun, they really are, but it can get bad really fast," says DeWitt. "It can drag you under in a hot second."
DeWitt went to the ER to be checked out after the rescue and says her baby is in good health.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.