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I was in a meeting this weekend out of town during a rainstorm and about an hour into it, someone came in and stated that the water has risen above the riverbanks nearby, flash flooding was inevitable, and we needed to adjourn. I excused myself and went out to find my Z already in a couple of inches of water in the parking lot. The kicker was the street out of there was already at about 6” deep. I had about 150ft of distance on that street before I would get to a nice hill (side road) for refuge. I remembered the road being extremely flat coming in there, so there were no real hidden dangers under the water, just a lot of it. I was trying to figure out what to do. If I left the Z, it was going to get flooded (water was now touching my wheels). They said if it stopped raining instantly, with the ground already being saturated, they’d at least see another 12” in that area just from runoff. I thought about towing it out of there, but no one had a rope or chain. It was either leave it and get it flooded, or drive it out and take a chance. I thought about it real hard and came up with an approach that I thought could work. I figured that if I built up enough speed in reverse, I could possibly maintain a wake going through the water. Since the wake would be at the front of the car, it would lessen the chance of water entering the intake. I walked over and watched someone drive through and noticed his wake was enough to briefly see the pavement before the water rushed back in place. That was good enough for me. I explained to a guy what I was trying to do an he kept anyone from coming back through until I was out so I wouldn’t be faced with stopping midstream or have another wake to contend with. Then I gave it a shot. It worked like a champ! RELIEF!
If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, try this only at your own risk, the consequences could be serious.
Regards
Sweep 
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