[TheForge] Don't drive through a flood!

[Walter]

I posted on Google Map/Earth forum a suggestion that Google create some 
colored maps for places like Houston that show safe elevated routes for 
evacuation and that rescuers could use.  Might be different ones for 
different levels of flooding.  I see/read too much about people trying 
to get out but can't find a way. There is no reason why this can't be 
done in Houston and other cities.

Google maps does show all of the shelter locations and they update their 
capacity but nothing about elevation!


On 8/31/2017 7:31 AM, Bruce . wrote:
> We're reading about people in TX driving through flooded streets and
> drowning.  The problem, of course, is not the deep water per se, it's that
> vehicle can float, and even if they don't they can be washed off a roadway
> by a swift current.  It's  a really bad idea.
>
> One never knows what motivated people to do such a thing -- possibly no
> other choice at all.  But I recall a case in NJ where the option to go
> around the long way MAY have been rejected:
>
> Several years ago, before I carried a cell phone,  the summer rains were a
> bit harder than usual and there was localized flooding in the NJ mountains
> ("hills" to you out West!).  I was heading down a valley road when I saw
> that the little brook beside the road had overflowed its bank and the
> roadway and bridge.  I'd planned to take that road over the mountain toward
> home because the alternative route would be an extra 20 miles driving.
>
>
> A family had stopped their van there too, and the man and his son were
> wading along the road, so I stopped on the dry road and asked them how it
> was.   He said it was "not too bad"  fast, but only 15" deep.  He clearly
> intended to drive through it!  I pointed out 15" of water might FLOAT his
> van, but he asserted it was a heavy vehicle and they'd be alright.
>
>
> So, as I got into my car to drive the long way around, I told him that I
> didn't want to stay there and watch their van wash downstream -- and feel
> obligated to DO something to rescue them.  I drove off and never looked
> back.  If saving the extra 20 miles was worth risking his family to him,
> who was I to say him nay?  Besides, I had spoken QUITE loud enough for his
> wife to hear my every word....
>
>
> (FWIW, I never heard about any drownings, so maybe he made it or maybe he
> turned back.  By now they'd have found the van full of drowned people had
> he washed  downstream.)
>
>
> Bruce
> NJ
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