Friday, June 7, 2013

Turn around, don't drown

You may have already seen the video from earlier this week, but I wanted to share it for those who haven't yet. Chris Novy, a storm chaser, who was in Oklahoma last Friday was out driving around as flash flooding was occurring. This is what Chris had to say about the situation: 'I approached a flooded road and made a quick U-turn rather than driving into the water. This was a naturally smart move. Unfortunately my turn resulted in me plunging off a hidden embankment and splashing nose-first right into a swollen creek where I sunk straight to the bottom, I traveled several hundred feet underwater with the car quickly filling up. At one point I was completely surrounded by water and just holding my breath in the darkness. Somehow the driver-side and passenger-side windows broke and I was flushed from the vehicle. I surfaced after a bit and found myself racing down the creek. A cop called out to me and I was able to swim to him and his life-saving grab'.


Chris also goes on to say that he probably should have come to a complete stop to evaluate the situation a little more and instead of driving through should have just backed up.  He says he took a dangerous situation and made it a lot worse. 

One of the biggest lessons to learn from this is simply: 'Turn Around, Don't Drown'!  Even if the water covering the road is a couple inches deep you have no idea, just like Chris, what kind of hidden creek or drainage ditch may be surrounding the road.  It's best to just turn around and find another route.  Thankfully Chris survived and was able to tell his story.

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