Disaster Tip of the Week: Turn Around Don't Drown
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 9:55AM
Keith Erwood in Disaster Tip of The Week, Driving through water, Flood, Flood, Safety, Survival, Turn Around Don't Drown, flash flood, flood safety, water

This is something that confronts all drivers at one time or another, you come across a large pool of water in the road and it looks to be only a few inches deep. You drive through it and nothing happens. So you do it again next time and the time after that.

Then one day your not so lucky, you drive through the same pool of water, in fact it looks like there is less water than last time, and next thing you know your car drops into a hole and the water is up to the middle of the window, and now you can't get out.

Lets face it, driving through standing water is a bad idea, and driving through flowing water can be even more dangerous, and here is why.

As I mention above, (watch the videos below) the water may be much deeper than you realize especially if it has caused the roadway to collapse which is a common occurrence. Another reason is that it takes two feet of water to float the largest of vehicles, even a bus. However, just six inches of water can float smaller vehicles and can be enough to cause larger vehicles to become unstable.

Add flowing water to the mix and you can easily be swept away. Six inches of fast moving water can knock a person off their feet and even less if the water is moving fast enough.

Next time you come across that pool of water in the road - "Turn Around Don't Drown"

Rescue from Submerged Vehicles

 Woman Drives into Pool of Water

Rescue After Water Main Break

 Fire Truck In Hole After Road Collapses

 

Article originally appeared on Disaster Preparedness Blog - Emergency Preparedness Tips, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Emergency Management (http://disasterpreparednessblog.com/).
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