In all honesty I don't want to sound insensitive to what I'm about to say. I have a really close family friend whose best friend and his wife both drowned a couple of years ago in a flood. Really sad story. They just got married a month prior and actually called family in the car knowing they weren't going to make it. They suffered the typical flood drowning fate by attempting to drive into a flooded roadway.
This leads to the reason for this post.
1.) Why do people continue to drive into flooded roadways? There was some minor flooding in my area once but there's no way of telling how flooded the road is and how quickly the water is rising. I was the only one of about 6 around me that decided to turn around and take a 2 minute detour to avoid. Seems like a reasonable thing to do for anyone who watches the news.
2.) I know I must be naïve, but I just feel like it wouldn't be that hard to escape a vehicle being overcome with water. I know it's naïve because countless people die every time there's a flood and I'm no Michael Phelps or Aquaman. It just seems like there's got to be a way to not panic and do the right things to survive your car being swept away in a flooded roadway. I just wonder what percent are a result of panicking or making bad decisions like trying to squeeze out of a window rather than opening the door when the pressure equalizes. And wasting oxygen going crazy banging against windows or something.
I know there are some circumstances where fatality can't be avoided such as levees breaking and extreme flash floods where there's no time and fast moving water with currents and whatnot. But it seems like so many fatalities sound completely avoidable to me, as compared to other natural disaster fatalities like tornados and earthquakes.
This leads to the reason for this post.
1.) Why do people continue to drive into flooded roadways? There was some minor flooding in my area once but there's no way of telling how flooded the road is and how quickly the water is rising. I was the only one of about 6 around me that decided to turn around and take a 2 minute detour to avoid. Seems like a reasonable thing to do for anyone who watches the news.
2.) I know I must be naïve, but I just feel like it wouldn't be that hard to escape a vehicle being overcome with water. I know it's naïve because countless people die every time there's a flood and I'm no Michael Phelps or Aquaman. It just seems like there's got to be a way to not panic and do the right things to survive your car being swept away in a flooded roadway. I just wonder what percent are a result of panicking or making bad decisions like trying to squeeze out of a window rather than opening the door when the pressure equalizes. And wasting oxygen going crazy banging against windows or something.
I know there are some circumstances where fatality can't be avoided such as levees breaking and extreme flash floods where there's no time and fast moving water with currents and whatnot. But it seems like so many fatalities sound completely avoidable to me, as compared to other natural disaster fatalities like tornados and earthquakes.
Flood fatalities