Flooded Road=GUN IT FULL SPEED!

[ralerin]

There's a Mart of K in a shopping center, several houses and one car dealership near my university that were built over a stream they forced underground. Whenever it rains heavily/for more than a day, the stream rears its head and that entire section becomes flooded in anywhere from several inches to several FEET of water. I remember a few years back when we had a particularly bad flooding in the summer-that Mart of K was closed for at least 2 weeks, lost several hundred thousand dollars, etc, etc, etc. For reasons unknown to me, the town never fixed the problem properly. I am coming back from trying to eat at "Mexican Bell" (which, too, were closed) and am forced to take the left at the intersection and use the slightly flooded road (less than an inch of water on it) because there's no other way.

Today, because it's raining so heavily, the shopping center is closed and roads are blocked all around. One idiot ignores the BRIGHT ORANGE cones blocking the road, the signs that say "Road Closed" AND the police officer and guns it...

...Right into the worst of the flooding. Now Mr. I Wanna Take A Shortcut has to try to float his car through wheel deep water.

[Shalom]

That reminds me of something I just read, not too long ago.

Here's a great post on a traffic cop's blog regarding idiots who try to drive their cars through standing water. Short excerpt reproduced below:

. . . Of course this area is chock filled with stupid people. Not ignorant or uneducated stupid people, but the special kind of stupid people who think that because they drive expensive foreign cars and have high-paying jobs that don’t require them to ever perspire or get dirty, that the laws do not apply to them. Many of them also don’t think that they should have to take detours just because a sign and a few barricades suggest otherwise.

So because these people won’t stop going around our barricades and getting stuck in the water, I get assigned to go take up a traffic post at the south end of the flooded zone to direct the people to the detour and prevent them from going into the water. In other words, I have to force people to not do stupid stuff that any five-year-old would know better than to do. And trust me—they are not grateful. About one in ten feels the need to pull up to me, inform me that they need to be on the other side of the closed section, and ask if they cannot be allowed through.

Sir, that’s a BMW, not a U-Boat, so no. . . .

There's more there. Judging by his posting style, I think this particular cop would fit right in on this board with the rest of us.

[Sapphire Silk]

*shudder* The cop is right; it takes a special kind of stupid to drive through a flooded road.

Years ago, I was living in a small town. I hadn't lived there very long and wasn't familiar with the nuances of the roads. I left a friend's house after midnight on a day when it had been raining hard all day. As I drove home, I went through what I thought was a puddle, and was shocked when I set off a major wave of water, met heavy resistance, and my engine died. When I opened the door to get out, water flooded into my car: I was in knee deep! I had to call AAA to get a tow home. Unbeknowst to me, I had driven into a dip in the road that regularly flooded (it was not barricaded and there were no warning signs, so I had no clue until it was too late).

I did my best to mop up the water, but the interior was still flooded in spite of my efforts. I actually had to get a bucket and bail out my car, and take a day off of work to try and dry it out. Alas, the carpet mildewed and make the most horrible stink.

Never again. I will ALWAYS respect barricades around flooded roads.

[LillFilly]

I LIKE that Police Officer! We must invite him to join! One of us. One of us...

I should get that car with the snorkle like Pierce Brosnen drives in 'Dante's Peak.'

[mattm04]

We got hit wit a massive wind storm a few days ago. My area had some major, but isolated damage. Guts were from 60-70 MPH with sustained wind in the 50's I would guess.

Anyway a HUGE tree, maybe 3 ft in diameter came down, taking out about 5 poles with it nearby. I could see parts of the tree, power co trucks, tel co and cable trucks parked nearby assessing the situation. At the nearby intersection a huge "ROAD CLOSED" sign and orange cones were up. I had to take the detour to get to the nearest open gas station to get more gas for the generator the moron in front of me just casually drives partially over someone lawn to go around. I watch and he gets turned around by the the utility crews. In the 6 mile trip I saw dozens of toppled trees, large limbs in the roads and maybe 8-12 snapped poles.

A few hours away they got hit much worse, with literally 70% of a large town w/o power. The Fire Chief of one of the towns was saying the biggest problem was people not obeying road closed signs. He also daid they responded to dozens of accidents where people did;t stop at intersections w/o a working light and crashed. They showed clips of cars ignoring at least 2 stop signs and other warning signs in each direction and coasting thru at maybe 10-20 MPH. You could hear a almost a constant horn sound.

He also had to warn people to NOT Jog under trees weighing thousands of pounds, resting on wires attached to broken utility poles.

[Dips]

We're dealing with the same situation here, our second "500-year flood" in 5 years. One thing that people whose homes have been flooded don't appreciate is people gunning through deep water and creating a large wake causing water to slosh over the barricades or wear away at the structure of their houses. That kind of thing causes a lot of property damage around here.

Even though I *could* probably go to work today, the water isn't done cresting so I decided to work from home until it goes down a bit. I'd have a problem getting home again.

The rest of this applies ONLY if the road isn't barricaded closed. You should never try to drive through a closed road.

If you feel you MUST go through water I recommend doing a walk through in boots (or watching someone else brave it first) to see how deep it is and if there are any rocks or other hazards hiding under the water. If the water is higher than your tailpipe, don't do it.

If the flood is on a bridge, think again. The structure of the bridge may be damaged. Do you really want to be the one who finds that out the hard way?

If the water is moving fast or has a strong current, forget it. You could be washed off the road.

If you feel that you can risk it, go very slowy and steadily. Don't gun it and don't stop. If you stop displaced water may slosh back into your tailpipe.

If you are following someone in another car wait for them to complete the crossing before you attempt it. If they end up stopping and you're still crossing, you'll end up having to stop in the middle which is not good. And if the first car ends up stuck and not able to go any further you've just saved yourself from the same fate. Better him than you.

[JoitheArtist]

That reminds me of something I just read, not too long ago.

Here's a great post on a traffic cop's blog regarding idiots who try to drive their cars through standing water. Short excerpt reproduced below:

There's more there. Judging by his posting style, I think this particular cop would fit right in on this board with the rest of us.

I just read through the archives, and that is an awesome blog!! He would totally fit in here.

[the lawsmeister]

I volunteer with the SES (State Emergency Service) and the guys are full of stories like this.
People moving barricades to drive around them and then getting the shits cause there's a fallen tree blocking the road,
People who let their kids wander up next to a guy cutting said tree with a 3 foot long chainsaw and flip out when you tell them the kid can't be there. Hell even with full PPE I don't like getting too close to the chainsaw operator while he's working.
I've almost been run down by people when we've been doing road closures. Some how the excuse "I didn't see you" doesn't rate with me when I'm wearing bright orange overalls with reflective bands on them.

It's not just this cops area that's chock full with stupid people. They're here in Aus too. They're breeding I tell ya.

[wolfie]

Actually, there are a few limited circumstances where it's OK to drive onto a flooded road. I doubt if any of the situations mentioned in this thread meet the required qualifications, however.

[Geek King]

Actually, there are a few limited circumstances where it's OK to drive onto a flooded road. I doubt if any of the situations mentioned in this thread meet the required qualifications, however.

Don't forget the good ol' DUK-W.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I have to admit I drove through a flooded road once.

I was going into work for an overnight shift and we had had some bad storms for a couple hours before I had to go in. I didn't even see how flooded the street was; it was still raining pretty hard. I was just lucky to make it through I guess.

That was about as bad as I've seen the streets flood. It doesn't happen all that often.