DALLAS — Michael Norman wishes he wouldn’t have taken the chance on Monday night.
“It was hailing. Sirens were going off for a tornado. I was a dummy. I was just trying to get food, and here I am paying the consequences,” Norman said.
His 2018 Cadillac Crossover stalled out in Carrollton when he drove into water covering Hebron Parkway.
“It looked like maybe four or five inches of water, but it was probably about two feet,” he said.
It was also raining so hard he could barely see.
Water seeped into his doors but began to recede before he felt like his life was in danger.
Several other cars stalled out on Hebron Parkway.
The scene was repeated countless times on roads and highways all across North Texas as drivers took more chances than they should have.
Viral social media videos show cars and trucks trying to roll through water halfway up their doors.
“I wouldn’t go through it,” said mechanic David Nguyen, owner of Elite Auto Solution on North Riverfront in Dallas.
“If the water is high enough to where it touches your exhaust pipe, it’s already too deep,” he said. “Either the water goes into the exhaust or into the intake. And when it does, it goes into the engine and it locks up the motor. And it can be very expensive.”
McKinney’s Fire Department had to break out boats to rescue people caught in flash flooding. The City of Dallas responded to 26 calls for people in danger, Frisco reported nine, and the City of Carrollton had at least three locations where cars were stranded in high water.
“Six inches of water can move a person, 12 inches of water can start to effect a vehicle and two feet of moving water can wash it away,” said Elliott Reep, emergency management coordinator for the city of Carrollton.
He said drivers should do all they can to avoid driving into standing water.
But abiding by the “turn around don’t drown” advice is sometimes difficult when water is ponding or pooling on an interstate.
“You need to slow your speed to at least half of what you’d normally be going – that buys you time to see things and to react,” Reep said. “Pay attention to vehicles in front of you. If you see a vehicle disappear in front of you, that’s a bad sign.”
Norman is holding out hope his Cadillac is repairable.
“Mistakes were made, but hopefully everything is going to be OK,” he said.