Reducing U.S. Hurricane Deaths: Evacuate Early and Don't Drive into Water on the Road

People die in hurricanes, see here, which lists 21 deaths from hurricane Matthew. In North Carolina, we've had 14 of those deaths. The large majority of which involved people dying because they drove their cars into high water and got

trapped or swept away or otherwise put themselves in a position to drown.

Back when the death toll was slightly lower, there was this:

The 11 deaths in North Carolina included some victims who drowned after driving onto flooded roads.

"I cannot stress more: If you see a road that's flooded, do not take your car through that road," McCrory said. "If you see a barrier, do not go around that barrier."

More here:

Fourteen people have been killed in the state, most of them occurring when motorists were swept away on flooded roads, McCrory said during a Tuesday morning press conference.

One person was killed in Johnson County when their car was washed away, McCrory said Monday.

McCrory said during a press conference Saturday that one person died in Sampson County after their vehicle hydroplaned in heavy rain. Two others were killed in Bladen County when their vehicle became submerged.

A fourth victim drowned in Harnett County after the victim drove past a barricade and was swept away into a creek, the county sheriff told FOX8.
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During a Sunday morning press conference, the governor said two deaths were also reported in Johnston County and one in Pittman County.

The News & Observer reported that one of the deaths was 19-year-old Diamond Shuntelle Bennett, whose car was swept away in flood waters on Interstate 95 near Four Oaks on Saturday night, according to Capt. Jeremy Johnson of the Four Oaks Fire Department.

One person died after five people were trapped inside a submerged Nissan Versa in Cleveland.

“Four escaped and were able to cling to trees until rescue arrived,” State Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Jeff Gordon told The News & Observer. “The other they’re still looking for and is presumed deceased.”

In addition to the deaths, people driving into flood waters who do not get killed need to be rescued, which places their rescuers in dangerous situations.

A 63-year-old woman, who was on her way home from her nursing job at a long-term care facility, clung to a tree for three hours after floodwaters from Hurricane Matthew swept her car into a canal in Wilson, AP reports.
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North Carolina Highway Patrol troopers helped 25 vehicles after they became stranded on Interstate 95 Saturday. The cars got caught on a stretch of road between two parts of the flooded highway.

State officials say emergency responders have conducted at least 77 water rescues from cars and homes in Fayetteville alone, according to The News & Observer, including the dramatic rescue of a woman and her child from a car that got caught up in the floodwaters.

If it's true for hurricanes, it's also true for thunderstorms, as set out here:

Each year, more deaths occur due to flooding than from any other thunderstorm related hazard. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that over half of all flood-related drownings occur when a vehicle is driven into hazardous flood water. The next highest percentage of flood-related deaths is due to walking into or near flood waters. People underestimate the force and power of water. Many of the deaths occur in automobiles as they are swept downstream. Of these drownings, many are preventable, but too many people continue to drive around the barriers that warn you the road is flooded. A mere 6 inches of fast-moving flood water can knock over an adult. It takes just 12 inches of rushing water to carry away a small car, while 2 feet of rushing water can carry away most vehicles. It is NEVER safe to drive or walk into flood waters.

Want to reduce hurricane tragedies? Turn around, don't drown.

Oh, and when given the warning to evacuate before a storm, evacuate. When the water begins to rise around you, an attempt to drive out then may just kill you. So pack up all your valuables and get out early. There's always higher ground to be found before the storm.

Thursday Safety Show

Ah, here's one of the rare ones, "Safety in Offices" -

Coast Guard has a gift list for12 nautical days of Christmas

Coast Guard's gift ideas for 12 nautical days of Christmas:

Among the Coast Guard's recommended nautical gifts are:

* A Marine GPS navigation system
* A 406 MHz EPIRB (make sure you register it after purchase, or rescuers may be delayed in reaching you!)
* A Coast Guard-approved life jacket (because they float, you don't...)
* A handheld VHF-FM radio
* A Boating Safety Course (boater education saves lives -- it's a fact)
* Vessel Safety Check (VSC) from the Coast Guard Auxiliary (it's free!)
* A Coast Guard approved fire extinguisher
* A first aid kit in a watertight container
* A seamanship book
* Nautical charts for the areas your favorite mariner frequents
* A signaling kit
* A life raft with a survival kit

Some of the most valuable gifts don't cost anything but time, such as scheduling a free vessel safety check with your local Coast Guard Auxiliary. For more information on scheduling a free vessel safety check visit www.safetyseal.net. To find a boating safety course in your area visit www.aboutboatingsafely.com.

Help make sure the sailor you love comes home. And have a Merry Christmas!

There's Nothing Like Experience: A Short Report on Unintended Consequences

From the U.S. Coast Guard Home Page a link to an AP report on why some things maybe can't be rushed: Tugboat pilot plan may have backfired:

A federal program to recruit more tugboat pilots may have backfired by allowing thousands of novice captains to take the helm and contributing to a 25 percent increase in the number of accidents on the nation's rivers.

An Associated Press review of Coast Guard records indicates that the U.S. tugboat fleet is increasingly piloted by captains who have spent as little as one year in the wheelhouse.

"The system has failed," said David Whitehurst, a tug captain and member of the board of directors for the National Mariners Association, a national tug workers' group based in Houma, La.

"We have the highest horsepower in history, pushing more tonnage than ever in history, with the least knowledgeable personnel in history. It is a disaster. Look at the accidents we've had in the past few years."

Said Richard Block, secretary of the mariners' group: "You can't learn to run a towing vessel overnight, and some of these companies are simply rushing it too much."

Pushing or pulling barges piled high with freight, today's river tugboats are the 18-wheelers of the waterways, transporting all manner of goods such as oil, grain and chemicals.

At the start of the decade, the Coast Guard was under pressure from the shipping industry to revamp its training and licensing process for river pilots because an older generation of captains in their 50s was beginning to retire, creating a labor shortage.

The agency scrapped the time-honored "master's system" in which captains hand-selected rookies for pilot training. Instead, officials began allowing companies to pick trainees and pay for them to become "apprentice steersmen."

Under the new system, someone can get behind the controls of a tug after just a year, whereas the old arrangement required new pilots to spend years working their way up to the captain's seat.

In 2003, just 16 pilots were issued new apprentice towing licenses. By 2007, that number ballooned to 871, and last year to 885. The new pilots come cheap, too. An apprentice earns about $175 a day compared with $450 a day for a top-grade pilot.

But as the industry has added thousands of new pilots, the number of accidents involving tugs, barges and related vessels has jumped 25 percent, from 1,399 in 2003 to 1,754 in 2008.

And it's not because more goods are getting shipped. Over that same span, cargo volumes rose by only about 3 percent.

As the saying goes, "Do you now or do you want it right?"