Dramatic Video Shows New Jersey Flash Flood Sweeping Cars Away From Dealership Lot


It’s amazing what a couple of inches of rain can do. Flash floods in New Jersey created a dangerous river of water that devastated a car dealership and set vehicles adrift. The shocking scene was captured by Facebook user Michael Galo. According to NJ.com, the video, which has over 3,000 shares on Facebook, was recorded from an overpass and you can see cars floating in the water and bumping into each other, with their prices still on. Many of the cars ended up stranded against a bridge as the water swirled around them.

The National Weather Service tweeted a flood warning for northeastern New Jersey on Friday, August 11.

“Showers & thunderstorms producing heavy rain will move across the area causing urban and small stream flooding,” the Twitter post read. “Overflowing poor drainage areas will result in minor flooding in the advisory area.”

Five inches of rain fell in Caldwell which is located less than 10 miles away from the dealership. It looks like the water rushed from other flooded areas converging to create a moving wall of water that carried the SUVs away from the dealership. Out of all the nearby counties, Caldwell had the highest rainfall. But there were elevated levels of rain in Bergen, Essex, and Passaic counties, NJ.com notes.

There’s more rain heading their way as well. The National Weather Service reports that there could be coastal flooding in New Jersey on Sunday.

The rainfall was scattered with some areas more affected than others. But each county had at least one town that experienced more than a half inch of rain.

(Warning: Strong language can be heard during the video)

The cars in the dealership weren’t the only ones affected by the thunderstorms and flooding. According to another article on NJ.com, across the state, cars were seen overwhelmed by water. People were also stranded in the floods and had to be saved by rescue workers. The American Red Cross also said that they had to rescue over 20 people from eight families in Fairview. Reports of adrift cars were made in Woodland Park and workers with high water vehicles had to be dispatched to remedy the situation.

In South Jersey, flooding affected the public transportation system specifically the NJ Transit Riverline for a period of time.

Newsweek reports that the National Weather Service maintains a River Flood warning until Sunday for areas around the Passaic River. They estimate that water levels are expected to increase to 20 feet and that the flood stage is set at 19 feet.

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