Flood Safety Awareness Week

Regular readers of my blog know that I sometimes post about flood events in New Jersey and elsewhere in the Northeastern corner of the United States. Some of you also know that I doing various things to learn more about weather, including reading various materials from the National Weather Service (USA). If any of you are regular readers of National Weather Service (NWS) webpages, whether they be national or your local NWS office then you may know that this week (March 18 to 22) is Flood Safety Awareness Week, at least in the U.S., please take a moment to check out this site as the NWS has put together some very good materials on flood safety.

Flood safety is a very big deal to me because the father of one of my high school classmates died  in his automobile in a flooded underpass during Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Please don't let this happen to you. Turn around and don't drown. As little as six inches of water can knock you down or cause you to lose control of your car. Two feet of water can cause even a large SUV to be swept off the road.

Sure, I admit that there have been times when I have driven through flooded areas that I had no business being in, I was lucky. Over the last several months being safe has taken on new meanings to me, so I am trying to do all I can to be safe. And that means not playing on the edge of the cliff, even though I've lived to tell about it. So, I no longer drive through any flooded areas. I turn and around and don't drown (TADD).

Please turn around and don't drown. Yeah, if you are living in a remote rural area this might mean driving many miles out of your way. Been there down that in Vermont a couple of times. I arrived late, but I arrived alive.

Please take about 3 minutes to watch this video on the dangers of flash floods and why it is important to turn around and don't drown.


direct link to video