With all the rain and flooding we’ve had lately, it brought back memories of the time I was surrounded by water after taking one turn off the four-lane to an access road.
The only reason I even turned was because I’d come upon traffic that was bumper-to-bumper on all four lanes with an emergency vehicle ahead of all the traffic much farther down the road. I figured it had been a bad wreck and I’d go to the dollar store because it looked like the traffic would be like that for a while.
That one turn resulted in a big mistake within seconds. My car began floating, and I was surrounded by water. I pressed accelerator hoping I could get to the other end of the access road before my engine died. It didn’t take long to realize there was no other side.
The bad thing was knowing there was a ditch on each side of me and the one to the right was the deepest, but I had not idea how close I was to either of them. Well, I need up at the deepest end with the front end of my car pointed downward.
My car was sinking while the water was rising on the inside. When it got halfway to my knees, I tried to open the door, but it slammed shut. IT was at that moment when panic began setting in. I’m very claustrophobic, but I talked myself into taking a few slow breaths and straightening myself up, or I might not make it.
I began looking around for something to break the window, just in case I couldn’t get the door open on my next try. So, with Maglite in hand, I gave it another try. It was all I could do do push it open, but I was able to hold it long enough to put my legs out to keep the door from slamming shut. The force was causing the door to beat against my legs, so I was able to push the door away from my legs, keeping the beating to a minimum.
To top that off, the water came pouring in and was now above my waist. I knew I’d need to manage somehow to get onto my roof for safety. I was able to push enough to get my legs to move while I climbed from my seat up the inside of the door and pulled myself on top of the roof.
As I was sitting there, all cold and soaking wet in the sprinkling rain with the sky getting darker and darker, I noticed my car was close to three-fourths submerged and my hood was disappearing a little at a time.
A car finally pulled up, so I knew I was going to get a little help, but I was wrong. The people sat there a few minutes and left, to my surprise. Two or three more did the same thing.
People were hollering “Hi” from the safety of the four-lane, and I even heard my name called a few times.
Approximately 10 or 15 minutes later, a man who worked for the Russellville Electric Department helped me to get to the wet—but not flooded—pavement. His wife brought me a coat to wear.
After the waters receded, a young man walked from KFC and told me I was on Facebook. Now I know why the cars pulled in and left. They could have had a good video for the news if I hadn’t made it. No, wait, I did make the news! I was “The Lady on the Car.”
I can say from experience to stay out of water covering roads, and don’t go near flooding waters. I had no previous warnings, but a floating car is not a good feeling. As we’ve heard on the news, it doesn’t always have a happy ending.
Until next time, take care, my friends.
