A Bend resident and an American who saved more than 20 lives during a 1953 flood in England has died.

Reis Leming died at his home Sunday. He was 81.

Leming, a native of East St. Louis, Ill., owned a burglar and fire alarm company in Bend. But he was best known for a daring rescue on a chilly night on Jan. 31, 1953.

Then a 22-year-old serving in the U.S. Air Force as a flight engineer and co-pilot on a B-29 crew based near Hunstanton, a small town on England’s east coast, Leming reportedly saved more than 20 lives during a horrific flood that killed more than 300 people.

With a 20-person inflatable raft in tow, Leming fought through severe wind and icy water that at times rose above his head, the 6-foot-3-inch Leming recalled for The Bulletin in 2001. Wearing a wetsuit, Leming picked British and American men, women and children off of rooftops and shuttled them to higher ground.

“It was cold, bitterly cold,” Leming recalled in a BBC story published in 2003. “And there came a time when I realized that I, too, was probably not going to survive.

“Everything was out of control. And I wondered at times, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ ”

By morning, Leming had collapsed from exhaustion and hypothermia had set in.

When he awoke, he was lying on his back, staring up at an ornate ceiling. His first thought, he said, was that he must be in heaven.

“When I woke up, the first thing I heard was, ‘His legs will have to come off,’” Leming told The Bulletin.

The nurse, he learned years later, was referring to the legs of his wetsuit.

Leming was awarded the George Medal, a civil decoration presented by the United Kingdom for acts of bravery. He also received the Soldier’s Medal, the U.S. military’s highest honor for heroism not involving combat with the enemy.

In 1993, Leming returned to Hunstanton and made several visits after. But memories of that night never faded.

“I’ve always been concerned, for 50 years, about how many people didn’t make it,” he told The Bulletin.

Leming had been scheduled to return to Hunstanton this week for a parade to honor the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force’s 67th Air Rescue Squadron, according to the Eastern Daily Press, a newspaper based in that region. A footpath bearing Leming’s name will be unveiled at the ceremony, according to the newspaper.