Severe flooding hit the West Coast, and drivers everywhere were caught in life-threatening flash floods. The loss of life and property damage are already significant.
What would you do if caught driving in flash flood conditions, and rising water was headed for your vehicle?
According to the Daily Mail:
Mark Chagaris uploaded video to YouTube of the terrifying flash flood – and while it’s unclear if he was the driver who captured the chilling scene on the dashboard cam – what is clear is that the surge of water was definitely dangerous.
The canny driver manages to reverse course and back quickly away from the muddy surge, which flush wave after wave of water over the road as his windshield wipers go full blast.
‘Mother Nature Speaks Loudly’ Chagaris captioned the video, which has so far received almost 250,000 views. This year’s California El Niño is so intense that it’s been nicknamed ‘Darth Niño.’
This man got away without incident after facing an epic force of nature. And thanks to his dash cam, he captured video of it while driving north of Los Angeles.
After waters rushed over the highway, he man backed up, reversing course down the road as the flood threatened to subsume his vehicle, before turning around and heading for higher ground…
Evacuations and orders to move to higher ground are driving the temporary relocation of thousands of people, and the episodes of flooding could take place in other places as well. As
Some 3,000 people in Sonoma County are under evacuation orders, and at least seven homes are seriously damaged.
“Our biggest concern is possible trees coming down, power outages,” said John Gulserian of the Nevada County Office of Emergency Services.
In the town of San Anselmo, police ordered people out of the downtown area because of rising flood waters, telling them to either evacuate or move to higher floors. A mudslide pushed a tree into a house in the town of Fairfax, California, trapping four people including two children. (source)
Unfortunately, an uptick of extreme weather has put millions of people, particularly in coastal urban areas at risk of encounter with flooded waterways or property damage in homes and buildings.
If you are caught in flooding, or compelled to evacuate in your vehicle during an emergency and must pass through or near flooded roads, keep in mind the overwhelming force that this water holds when up against any vehicle. Crossings that appear safe enough could end up sweeping a driver away to his death. Hundreds of people die this way in the average year.
As Tess Pennington notes, you must keep these factors remember during a flash flood:
Driving Flood Facts
The following are important points to remember when driving in flood conditions:
Six inches of water will reach the bottom of most passenger cars causing loss of control and possible stalling.
A foot of water will float many vehicles.
Two feet of rushing water can carry away most vehicles including sport utility vehicles (SUV’s) and pick-ups.
In the event that you end up stranded, unable to cross over a necessary roadway, or you crash into an embankment without knowing when help will arrive, it would be prudent to keep some basic supplies in a 72-hour kit, etc. to help keep you sustained if conditions put you in a bad spot.
Additionally, supplies to deal with getting out of your car – busting windows, cutting seatbelt straps, flares and radios to signal for help and other items could be invaluable if you are trapped in a car during a flodo, or disabled by a crash.
Your car kit should see you through at least 48 hours. Do you have enough water and food that doesn’t require cooking to get your family through an event like this? Do you have a way to keep small children entertained? Go here to see what I keep in my car kit. Yes, it’s extensive, but in a situation like this one, we could last for days without waiting for a helicopter to drop supplies to us.
Whenever possible, evacuate before things get this bad. Timing is everything when it comes to an evacuation. If you get out early, you won’t get stuck in traffic and are less likely to encounter insurmountable hazards. Of course, you can’t always make it out ahead of the crowd, especially in a situation with conditions that strike suddenly, like wildfire (check out the videos here to see how fast it can happen) or flash floods.
Keep your gas tank above 3/4 full. If you get stranded, you may need to run your vehicle for warmth, to keep the cell phone battery charged, and to listen to news updates. You’ll be glad you kept the tank topped up.
If you were stranded in your car, would you have to wait for supplies to be dropped?
Other videos from California show the high water levels and dangerous flooding conditions:
River campgrounds and cabins at Big Sur under water as river rages through #CAstorm #CAflood pic.twitter.com/jV1gxcMlIb
— Evan Sernoffsky (@EvanSernoffsky) January 9, 2017
Video: Big Sur River flows heavy after recent rains. @NWSBayArea #CAwx #castorm #montereystorm pic.twitter.com/bwauiknHOi
— David Royal (@RoyalPhoto_) January 9, 2017
#RussianRiver at Frog Woman Rock through the canyon near #Hopland in #Mendocino County @NorthBayNews @JimCantore @mikebettes @NWSBayArea pic.twitter.com/Cmn4dxFcEk
— Kent Porter (@kentphotos) January 9, 2017
A few days ago this was a creek kids could stand in to play around in. The rain is nuts. pic.twitter.com/hMjJL3fsk5
— Lauren (@llaurenngnn) January 10, 2017
Read more:
Floods? Watch This Prepper Save His Home From Encroaching Water
Could You Escape Your Vehicle In a Disaster? “The Potential Is All Too Real”
Louisiana Officials Demand That Self-Reliant Locals Stop Surviving the Flood Without Permission
Are You “Ready to Be Stranded” On the Road?
Massive West Coast Atmospheric River Storm “Inevitable”; Emergency Response Would Be Lacking
Kudos to that driver for acting as quick as he did. Even Cali has SOME sensible people left. the best thing is avoid driving in flood areas if at all possible.
Reno, Lake Tahoe area, received like 6 inches of rain, plus warm weather melted snow caused a lot of this flooding. So how can they harness all of this excess water and send it to LA for drinking water?
Good job! You can here the cars motor rev-up when he turned around. Want to bet he had the Peddle to the Metal!
Sgt.
Anyone watch the National Geographics new series which aired last night “Lawless Oceans” I maybe wrong but this looks like another attempt to use the the Great Brain Washing Machine (TV). There was alot of brutal scences and there are a lot of evil people in the world, but the media never misses an attempt to promote their agenda. I suspect this is trying promote the passage of UNCLOS which is better known as LOST or “Law of the Sea Treaty” which is another UN law. President Reagan resisted this law back in the 80’s. For more info you can check it out on Google, the Heritage Foundation has the down and dirty on LOST. Trekker Out. Stay Alert!
Some Good News, Gold is about to breach $1200 and Silver is marching up to hit $17 again. Both are soooo way under valued. I also read an extended article today about the massive amounts of Gold China has purchased over the last few years, and is being under reported greatly, reducing Global supply, which should quickly drive Gold prices upward. Silver will tag along for the ride. So get it now, or miss the boat before it goes to the moon. Yep you all been forewarned for months now.
No disrespect cause its cheap right now and I’m buying locally as much as I can. But I’ll believe its rise when I see it.
The stock market is going to absorb a great deal of funds this year, don’t believe a bunch of hype about metals.
Silver is in a long-term downtrend. Currently short silver (DSLV), looking for it to drop around 15.00 Way overbought technicals.
Wrong, that’s why Silver just shot up to:
$16.96… +0.24 cents, +1.44% Percent up for the day.
You been watching too much pump and dumpers. What’s your source? Buy Low Sell High. High being $100 an OZ lets say.
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__ “It never rains in Southern California. It pours. It pours.”
__ I can attest to the truth of the words to that song.
__ It has been raining heavy on and off for two weeks.
I don’t expect they will capture that rain water. There needs to be an excuse for over pricing what God gives freely.
There it just stopped the minute I acknowledged God. It seems he speaks to us, again.
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__ “He” not he
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B whats the situtaion with all those dried up lakes they were showing us a year or so ago? God Is Good!!! Trekker Out.
I am unable to view this video – it claims I need to sign into a FaceBook account to view it? … anyhoo …
The people of California should sue the Water Department for releasing their abundance of water upon them … shame on them … ツ
Hi Daisy…hope you and yours are well.
BadAmerican, reporting in from Monterey, Cali:
It got wet.
It got windy.
Rained sideways a lot.
Ran around like Chicken Little ‘cuz my cupboards were bare,
NOT.
Ran out of Reese’s pieces and corn dogs.
Had to go outside once to restock fire logs.
Cinched down the tarp over the Dune Buggy a bit tighter before the storms and all was good. And as far as storms go, me, being from Texas, has seen bigger. Meh, the lights didn’t even flicker.
I kept my powder dry….BA.
Anti-Trump protesters attack lone, pregnant woman in Portland.
THIS is the left. How brave. Hundreds of H8TE-filled violent protesters attack a lone, pregnant woman in Portland. What heroes.
Apparently this is NOT a campus “safe zone.” And apparently “Full Monty” H8TE is A-OK against those deemed political outcasts. Even the Nazi Brownshirts would have been ashamed of this one….
https://youtu.be/N9zXlOsMg7w?t=54 2:30 min
The police were nowhere to be seen, all they did was cordon off a few square blocks and let the scumbags do whatever they liked.
This cowardice in the face of anarchy is not going to be tolerated much longer.
“extreme weather” Really? What is non extreme weather and how is it measured? So is the drought classified as extreme weather? Weather is weather. It is neither extreme nor benign. it simply is.
I recall reading an article in Scientific American a few years back, climatologists had studied the weather patterns for a bunch of centuries, and concluded that the climate has very long cycles, running between even longer cycles like the Ice Ages.
The weather that we have enjoyed during the 20th Century was actually pretty benign, the ‘good’ cycle of the last 1,000 years was ending and we were going to return to ‘normal’ weather patterns, the ones we see today.
They said that conclusions about global warming were not valid unless the historical patterns were factored in. The climate does change, and changes in cycles, and nothing can be done about it. The solar gain and orbital mechanics of the earth are the cause, and nothing else.
hey,at least the guy made it and wasn’t driving thru a golden showe…….,all right,enuff I guess!
Welcome to LA LA LAND
In California’s infinite wisdom, they built massive storm drains to divert rain water run off to the ocean. So every gallon of rain that isn’t absorbed into the soil runs down storm drains and the Pacific Ocean reaps the benifit. If the corrupt politicos like Nazi Pelosi and Diane Frankenstein quit lining their pockets and put in a rain catchment system to divert the rain water into treatment plants, California would gain several hundred billion gallons of water each year just on run off alone. Glad I moved out of there a year ago, because common sense is void in that state!