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| Vehicle wake on a flooded road. Image credit: Reid Fiest / Global News |
These events occurred after Hurricane Harvey devastated the Texas Gulf Coast and caused disastrous flooding in Houston, East Texas, and Southwestern Louisiana.
An employee worked at his regularly assigned location, in the Lafayette area, through the duration of the storm. His family, luckily, were safe from any of the hazards that plagued so many in the Houston area.
Once the storm passed, his crew rotation was finished, so he wanted to go home to be with his family. It was strongly recommended that he plot a northern route up I-49 with guidance from the Texas Dept. of Transportation and the Louisiana Dept. of Transportation and Development websites to track road closures. He is assumed to have complied with that request, but appeared to mainly rely on WAZE, the crowd-sourced navigation app, to route his trip. (More on this later.) His route involved going south from Lake Charles to cross the Sabine River, then taking various roads north and west to go through Beaumont and then on through Conroe and into Spring, Tx, where he resides.
On one particular road, he found traffic was only able to go in one direction and the other side of the road was a boat lane. Yes, it was underwater and actually being used by boats.
He was able to make it through Beaumont, but eventually he arrived at a point on the road he was traveling that was underwater in both directions. I was notified that he had come to a section that his car could not pass through. (More on this later, too.) He then decided that according to what he could tell, he could take back roads and get to I-10 in Orange, Tx, then he should have a straight shot with open roads back to Lafayette.
That plan wound up not working either as he again encountered flooded roads that his car could not pass over, so he was stuck. In an evacuated Bridge City, Tx.
Luckily, he knew someone who lived in nearby Orange, Tx. who had not evacuated and was able to come pick him up. He was able to stay with this friend for the next day or so until waters went down and he could then make it back to Lafayette and on to Spring via a northerly route.
There are two take-aways I want to focus on from this experience, detailed below.
1. A crowd-sourced traffic/hazard/navigation app relies on having a crowd available at a specific location to report hazards and road closures. In this case, I suspect it showed no traffic issues because there was no one telling it that there were issues on the selected route.
2. When planning to take a potentially risky route through an area that is experiencing flooding, DO NOT attempt to take said route in a car! Unless it is lifted and riding on large tires, you most likely will not make it.
Some other points I would like to add is be prepared to sit tight when traveling in this kind of situation. Make sure to have water, food, medication, cash, a blanket, and anything else you might need in the event you are stranded and unable to travel further.
Please let me know your thoughts on this post and any suggestions for staying safe in this type of situation.
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