[TheForge] Don't drive through a flood!

[jerry Frost]

Good map, thanks for the tip Walter. Not that I'm in the flood zone but
there are a lot of folk who are and listers here can pass the word.

Bruce is absolutely right. While working for DOT highways we were constantly
getting complaints from people who broke wheels and worse driving through
flooded potholes. The fact that as little as 10" +/- of moving water can
wash your pickup truck down the river and that isn't intuitively obvious.
People tend to think their vehicle is a little castle and it's not. 

There's another thing people don't think of. You can NOT see what's under
the surface. Just because you can see under a guardrail or the bottom
connection of a fire hydrant doesn't there is a road left under the surface.
It may LOOK like 6" deep but might be 10'. YouTube has videos of people
driving into water and having their vehicle sink out of sight on city
streets. Sink holes happen. If you MUST drive through water go slow enough
you can back out if you feel a front wheel start off an edge. Better to have
someone walk ahead with a cane.

Better yet, check GPS or your smart phone for an alternate route. Ask a cop
or other EMT for a way around.

Be careful out there friends and pass the word please.

Frosty

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Walter
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2017 3:44 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Don't drive through a flood!

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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