Graham Butler
EF3
After numerous unique events this year many have asked what else could happen to David Drummond. Heck.....even I questioned if I should stand next to him in a lightning storm!!! Then this evening another "once in a lifetime" event happened.
I met up with him this evening just west of Vega, Texas and piled my gear into his van (thank god we didn't take my Tahoe). We headed towards the tornado warned storm sitting around the TX/NM boarder. At this point with it right at dark we were mostly going after lightning just happy to have another chase this year.....not to mention a backyard chase at that. We were traveling about 65mph as we crossed the TX/NM boarder (with the flow of traffic 10mph below the speed limit) in light rain and BAM we hit a wall of water. David noticed that I-40 had flooded a half second before we hit the water, let off the gas, and avoided the semi to our right. The water was about a foot and a half deep and the force of hitting it threw us sideways, lifted the passenger wheels off the ground, ripped open the sliding door, and threw us in the ditch. The only thing that kept the door from opening more than 8in was my tripod got jammed in there preventing it from opening all the way. In the process this soaked us, the inside roof of the van, as well as all the belongings inside. When the shock wore off we realized that we were nose first into the ditch in about 2 feet of water or enough to come up 2-3in on his hood. The next is beyond me but he was able to rock the van out of the ditch without us getting out. It appears that all that was lost in the event was a piece of trim from his passenger side and a few sockets from his tool kit went out the door.
After this ordeal we pulled off to the other side of I-40 and got out to inspect what damage had occured. While we were getting back into the van David turned around just in time to see a small compact vehicle going east bound (we were going west bound) hit the flooded roadway, spin around numerous times, and get nailed by a semi. We could see from our side that there looked to be a guy helping someone out of his vehicle. We quickly ran across the highway, through the ditch (which we found out was 3 feet deep full of ICE cold hail water), to see if he needed help. As we approached the vehicle we realized that he was alright even though the air bags did deploy but he was not helping someone from the vehicle.......he was reaching into his front seat grabbing beer cans and throwing them out of the vehicle. It was a situation that could have happened to anyone but you have to wonder if he would have lost control had he not been drinking. New Mexico HP arrived within a few minutes and blocked off the fast lane of east bound and requested that we shut down the fast lane of west bound so no one woud get injured. When a Texas State Trooper arrived 10-15min later to take our spot he informed us that there were cars in the ditch all along I-40 and that this flooding had never happened before in this location. We speculate that the hail may have blocked off the water from proper drainage causing it to backup onto I-40.
All in all it was one hell of a night and I am sure glad David was driving and not me. Had I been driving we would have likely ended up upside down in the ditch.
(A completely soaked) Graham Butler, wx5svr
[email protected]
I met up with him this evening just west of Vega, Texas and piled my gear into his van (thank god we didn't take my Tahoe). We headed towards the tornado warned storm sitting around the TX/NM boarder. At this point with it right at dark we were mostly going after lightning just happy to have another chase this year.....not to mention a backyard chase at that. We were traveling about 65mph as we crossed the TX/NM boarder (with the flow of traffic 10mph below the speed limit) in light rain and BAM we hit a wall of water. David noticed that I-40 had flooded a half second before we hit the water, let off the gas, and avoided the semi to our right. The water was about a foot and a half deep and the force of hitting it threw us sideways, lifted the passenger wheels off the ground, ripped open the sliding door, and threw us in the ditch. The only thing that kept the door from opening more than 8in was my tripod got jammed in there preventing it from opening all the way. In the process this soaked us, the inside roof of the van, as well as all the belongings inside. When the shock wore off we realized that we were nose first into the ditch in about 2 feet of water or enough to come up 2-3in on his hood. The next is beyond me but he was able to rock the van out of the ditch without us getting out. It appears that all that was lost in the event was a piece of trim from his passenger side and a few sockets from his tool kit went out the door.
After this ordeal we pulled off to the other side of I-40 and got out to inspect what damage had occured. While we were getting back into the van David turned around just in time to see a small compact vehicle going east bound (we were going west bound) hit the flooded roadway, spin around numerous times, and get nailed by a semi. We could see from our side that there looked to be a guy helping someone out of his vehicle. We quickly ran across the highway, through the ditch (which we found out was 3 feet deep full of ICE cold hail water), to see if he needed help. As we approached the vehicle we realized that he was alright even though the air bags did deploy but he was not helping someone from the vehicle.......he was reaching into his front seat grabbing beer cans and throwing them out of the vehicle. It was a situation that could have happened to anyone but you have to wonder if he would have lost control had he not been drinking. New Mexico HP arrived within a few minutes and blocked off the fast lane of east bound and requested that we shut down the fast lane of west bound so no one woud get injured. When a Texas State Trooper arrived 10-15min later to take our spot he informed us that there were cars in the ditch all along I-40 and that this flooding had never happened before in this location. We speculate that the hail may have blocked off the water from proper drainage causing it to backup onto I-40.
All in all it was one hell of a night and I am sure glad David was driving and not me. Had I been driving we would have likely ended up upside down in the ditch.
(A completely soaked) Graham Butler, wx5svr
[email protected]
