Turn Around - Don't Drown

For those of you waiting for spring to get here we know it's a bit depressing, but northwest Oregon is still a few months away from sunny and warm weather, so for now we are all dealing with the heavy gray clouds and rainy weather. Around Forest Grove this liquid sunshine is creating havoc with our roadways and some of our most traveled routes are flooded and closed. Even though barricades are up in places and signs say "HIGH WATER" or "ROAD CLOSED" people still try and drive through these flooded areas and more often then not this causes a very dangerous situation to occur.

SW Fernhill Road is one of the most commonly flooded roads in Forest Grove

Most of us do not realize that as little as six inches of water can cause your car to actually float away. In places like where the Tualatin River floods SW Fernhill Road the river's current can actually be strong enough to not only float your car but push it downstream rather quickly. The same can be said for B Street where Gales Creek often floods over the popular route into Forest Grove from the south. For some types of cars, it takes even less water to flood your engine and cause it to stall. These are common situations that we deal with each year when people try and drive around these barricades and go through the flooded streets.

Firefighters practice using our rescue boat at Hagg Lake earlier today

Firefighters are out today training for these situations. At Hagg Lake we are working right now on training firefighters on safe boat operation, and later today we will be out in the flooded Fernhill Wetlands practicing in the dangerous current of the Tualatin River that has flooded over its' banks. Please help us so that we never have to put this training to use. If you come across a place where water is over the road carefully turn around and find another route. It may look shallow enough but it can be deceiving as the water can hide hazards like potholes and places where it has actually damaged the roadway making it hazardous to drive. In some places the roadway may actually not be visible and we have found people that crashed into the ditch when they lost track of where the road because of the water flowing over it. Please remember to turn around and don't drown when it comes to flooded roads in Washington County.