Fording into the flood

IT pays to know what to do in flood situations - simple or serious - with the rainy season here.

The rainy season is now in full swing and as I write this, it’s been raining non-stop for the past 36 hours. Preparation is key to avoiding any untoward incidents which might occur, but at the same time, flash floods hit us with violent ferocity and speed, we’re left with no choice but to brave the floods. Here are some tips, broken down into before, during and after wading through floods.

Before

1.) Make sure your car is in perfect running order. All your electrical accessories especially your lights are working properly. Intense rainfall will limit visibility severely, both for us while driving, and for other cars and motorists who might not see us driving while also on the road. Make sure your rear tail-lamps and hazard lights are in good working order.
2.) Inspect your tires. If they look unevenly worn, rotate the tires and/or have a 4-wheel alignment performed on your vehicle. If the tire tread is down to the wear bars, replace them immediately. Pump up your tire pressure 3-5 psi higher than usual. Beeboy Bargas, Top Gear Magazine’s off-road editor and head of Land Craft Adventures Inc, 4X4 driving and adventure expert, advises this to help prevent tire blow-out in case we run over pot-holes we do not see, such as when covered in flood water, or debris brought about by floods.
3.) Make sure you gas up at least 1/3 or more to ensure you have adequate fuel in your car as floods usually mean major traffic mayhem.
4.) Inspect your car, particularly the underside. If there are fluids leaking such as oil from your engine, or brake / hydraulic fluids from the brake lines, clutch lines and power steering lines, chances are that if you find yourself stationary in flood waters, the water pressure can leak into your vehicle’s key parts, causing them to fail on you immediately, or just as bad, cause long-term damage in the future. Have the leaks fixed immediately and replace or top off your fluids to the correct maximum level specified by your car’s manufacturer.
5.) If you’ve got loose, dangling vacuum hoses for your engine or worse, electrical wires, wrap them up completely in hose conduit and electrical tape, then fasten them safely and securely to the chassis or engine with zip tie plastic straps. You want to prevent these loose items snagging on debris on the road causing them to pop or be dislodged, thereby causing your vehicle to stall.

6.) Always have a map or GPS system with you so you can navigate around flooded areas. Wading through flood is always a last option; avoid it like the plague!
7.) Listen to weather and traffic reports regularly prior to leaving your home/office/school. Sometimes staying put and waiting for both flood and traffic to subside might be your safest option.
8.) Always have a complete set of tools inside, particularly jumper cables, a towing cable, a fresh change of clothes and a mobile phone fully-charged, ideally with a car charger inside your car in case you need to call for emergency help/rescue.
9.) Consider becoming a member of the Automobile Association of the Philippines or other similar car clubs. It is well-worth the peace of mind.

Driving through floods

1.) Turn on your headlamps, fog-lamps and rear fog-lamps for better visibility. However avoid turning on your hazard lights because this is a universal signal for a stranded / stalled vehicle. In poor visibility, chances are people might see your blinking hazard lights and misjudge their speed and distance to you, thinking you’re a stationary vehicle and might collide with you.
2.) Drive carefully but surely; if you keep hesitating and weaving through the lanes, you might cause an accident because the people behind you are getting impatient. Also, remember that carefully doesn’t mean slowly. Drive as quickly as your senses can keep up because you also want to minimize you and your vehicle’s exposure to the detrimental weather conditions. A tip here is check for steering feel and effort. The heavier the steering feel and effort is, the greater the volume of water is underneath your car’s tires, the more you should drive carefully and reduce speed and leave a bigger margin for braking up ahead of you.
3.) Most roads are actually crowned, i.e. the center section is slightly higher than the inner and / or outer lanes. Try to stay on the very middle of the road as flood water will run down to the lower sections of the road, feeding into the rain gutters and sewer and leaving the center lane with minimal standing flood water.
4.) Keep a steady pedal pressure on the brakes. Flood water cools down the brake discs and pads outside of your safe, recommended operating temperature. You’ll want to keep them within their warm, safe operating temperature range to give instant stopping power in case you have to stop suddenly. Also, the brakes should ideally be wiped off from debris such as fine sand and grime which can cause squealing or permanent brake pad or disc surface damage in the future.
5.) Should you be driving through flood water and suddenly stop, keep a steady pressure on the throttle / gas pedal as well, placing the transmission into neutral then revving the engine anywhere from 1,500-3,000rpm constantly to prevent flood water from entering your vehicle’s exhaust, causing it to choke and your engine to stall.
6.) Remember that for cars with the original / stock ride-height, the safe fording depth through flood water is roughly the very middle of your wheels and tires. If the flood water looks higher than that, find an alternate route.
7.) For SUV’s, pick-up trucks and other cross-over-based vehicles with a factory-specified elevated ride-height, the safe fording depth is the bottom of your car’s chassis / undercarriage.
8.) Drive behind bigger vehicles if you can but be careful when doing so and leave 3-5 car lengths at the minimum between you and the bigger vehicle ahead of you. A bigger vehicle, such as a bus or 10-wheel or bigger truck displaces more water, causing the flood waters to part as Moses did with the Red Sea. You’ll have less flood water and more clear road ahead of you. Consequently, avoid driving directly alongside these big vehicles. The wake through the flood they cause can completely lift your car’s tires off the ground and you lose complete control.
9.) After driving through floods, but still on very wet and slippery roads, remember to drive using a higher gear with a very light pedal pressure applied on the gas / accelerator pedal. If you up-shift immediately, the sudden surge in power can cause a loss of traction to the driven wheels, causing you to lose control.

Stranded

1.) Unfortunately, these things can happen. The best thing to do is to abandon your vehicle and leave it completely locked, but leave the hazard lights on.
2.) Exit through the windows or sun / moonroof if you can; you’ll want to avoid flooding the interior with dirty, smelly flood water. Cleaning that up and getting the smell out is a very long and irritating process.
3.) Immediately get to safe, higher ground but ideally within plain view of your car and call for emergency help / vehicle recovery. Call some family or friends over to accompany you if it is safe. Otherwise, forget your car. Your life is worth far more than any vehicle.

Surviving the aftermath

1.) After you get home safely, let the engine cool down completely. Then check your fluids. If there is a sign of contamination, flush out the old fluids and replace with new ones, along with the necessary filters.
2.) Remove all the carpets of your car and check if there are any moist / damp areas. Some cars have a drain plug on the chassis which might be worn out or damaged and you might need to reseal these drain plugs as flood water seeps back into your car from these drain plugs.
3.) Once again, put your car up on the lifter, inspect it for leaks and for anything that came loose or damaged while wading through floods and repair / replace these parts as needed.
4.) If there’s some dampness, it will cause a really bad odor. Leave the car, windows slightly open underneath the warm sun for an entire day. You can also leave a couple of shoeboxes filled with charcoal to absorb the moisture, or use baking soda liberally sprayed onto the wet / damp areas to eliminate odor.

Filing a report

1.) So your car was flooded and stranded, damaged and immobile. After the flooding incident, take a lot of pictures of the car at all angles, inside and out.
2.) Write an affidavit of the entire incident for the insurance company to facilitate repairs and / or for cash claims. A sketch of your location will also be useful, and getting a report from the authorities, be it police or barangay will also help legitimize your claim. Insurance companies are always weary of bogus claims so you better have all the necessary documents and your arguments set straight before the insurance investigator and adjuster.
3.) If having it repaired, insist on replacing key components with all-new parts, particularly all electrical components such as the alternator, starter, battery, ignition coils and all the ECM or engine control modules.
4.) Also, after the car has been fixed, replace all the fluids and filters, even at your own cost to prevent any future long-term damage to the engine and the rest of your car’s key components. Contaminated engine oil will not lubricate your engine and cause internal corrosion as well. You’ll end up with even more problems in the future.