Why Do People Continue To Drive Through Floodwater?

I am not from here, but I have lived here a good portion of my life. The drainage in Lake Charles has always been an issue, and certain parts of the city have always flooded. However, yesterday's flooding was the worst I've ever seen. Parts of the city flooded that never have before.

I am no engineer, but I think the massive flooding was caused by clogged drains. Hurricane debris has to have had something to do with the flooding because there was trash everywhere after the storms. The city hasn't recovered from the devastation of the hurricanes, and to make matters worse, there isn't enough manpower or ample funding to get a grip on all of our infrastructure issues. I can't speak for the rest of the city, but in our neighborhood, the drains are never cleaned on a regular basis to deal with pine cones and needles. So, the added debris brought by two hurricanes has only compounded the city's woes with bad drainage. On top of all of that, they are saying Monday's storm was the third highest rainfall in Lake Charles history.

Compounding this problem further are people refusing to stay off the roadways and driving though flooded water. Some people do not use common sense and will drive through extremely high water, only to drown their vehicles out minutes later. Then, there are the guys in the big trucks, drowning out smaller vehicles while driving way too fast through knee-high water. Very few people seem mindful of the fact that when driving through floodwater, the wake from your vehicle can be pushed into homes and businesses like a wave.

My mom's neighbor is a volunteer for the Cajun Navy. They were out and about yesterday, trying to help residents and local law enforcement with diverting traffic from highly flooded streets. He tried to reason with a guy in a Nissan Altima not to try and drive through high water on College Street. The man would not listen and drove around him, only to flood his vehicle minutes later. So, let's use better sense in these situations and all work together so we create fewer problems for ourselves.