Progressive Insurance Offers Hurricane Safety Tips

Hurricane season is approaching! Your safety and the safety of your family and others is of utmost importance. While the following advice is intended to help you understand how to protect your vehicle if you encounter deep water, your first consideration should always be to protect yourself, your family, and others.

As you prepare for possible severe weather, we'd like to remind you of an often overlooked element of hurricane preparedness: driving safely as you're evacuating or returning after a storm.

While the storm surge created by a hurricane is always a potential threat, more than half of all hurricane deaths in the last 30 years have resulted from inland flooding, according to the National Hurricane Center. Of those deaths, one in four were people who drowned in their cars.

One of the biggest dangers posed by inland flooding is the deep water caused by the storm surge. Driving through deep water can be dangerous to your personal safety and damage your car's upholstery, carpeting, and electrical system.

Progressive offers these tips for staying safe:

• If you're evacuating an area and are leaving a vehicle behind, be sure it's not left in a low-lying area prone to flooding. Rising water can seep in and damage your vehicle.
• When you're evacuating or returning following a storm, watch for standing water in parking lots or on streets.
• Avoid driving through standing water. The average automobile can be swept off the road in 12 inches of moving water. Find an alternate route.
• If you encounter a situation where you have no other reasonable alternative than to drive in standing water, do your best to estimate the depth of the water. Know that the threat of the roadway collapsing under water is real.
• Drive slowly and steadily through the water.
• If your vehicle stalls in the deep water, you may need to restart the engine to make it to safety (know, however, that restarting may cause irreparable damage to the engine).
• If you can't restart your vehicle and you become trapped in rising water, IMMEDIATELY ABANDON IT FOR HIGHER GROUND. If you are unable to get out of the vehicle safely, call 911 or get the attention of a passerby or someone standing on higher ground.
• Once you and your vehicle are out of deep water and are in a safe area, depress your brakes slowly several times to help dry them out.

Sources: NOAA, AAA, National Hurricane Center

National Weather Service
National Hurricane Center
Hurricane Forecasts
FEMA
American Red Cross