I ain't singing when I am driving in the rain here (Houston: home, live in)

[davidt1]

I have been seeing signs alerting people to be prepared because of the hurricane season. I didn't pay any attention until the rain came with strong wind the other day. It was a scary experience to be driving in such condition. It felt like buckets of water were thrown at the windshield, rendering the wipers virtually useless. I couldn't see at all at times, and had to drive very slowly. It took just minutes to flood the streets. Then some of the traffic lights stopped working, and the power went out in some areas. A woman driving from the opposite direction was yelling, "Don't do down there. Don't go down there." I guessed that end of the street had some serious flooding. I got off the street when I found some land to park. And all these times I thought the heat and humidity was bad.

[chris_ut]

The worst place to drive in the rain is east of Huntsville through the Sam Houston forest. Sometimes the rain comes down so hard there your visibility goes to about 2 feet and you have no choice but to pull over and wait for it to pass.

[Poltracker]

Storms will do that. I'm pretty sure it is not exclusive to Houston though.

[MalteseJane]

Thunderstorms here can be pretty bad and some streets flood each time. So you better know the areas that flood easily when driving around Houston. And when they tell you to stay home when the weather is bad, you better do if it's not an emergency. Be wary of flooded underpasses.

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by Poltracker

Storms will do that. I'm pretty sure it is not exclusive to Houston though.

It's probably a new experience to people from SoCal though.

[tstone]

DavidT, you live in the notoriously flooding SE side. It goes all the way from downtown to the Beltway down 45, and along the beltway from 45 to 288. PEople have trashed their cars there, and towards U of H around Tellepsen people have drowned, driving into a pool (deep diving underpass). Gotta be careful out there, as my friend who just moved to LA tells me they don't have a clue how to drive in the rain there!

The rain Tuesday evening was absolutely brutal coming from Port Arthur. I was going as slow as 45 mph on I-10 and that was literally zooming past everyone else. I use RainX treatments twice a month (good for medium rain but almost useless for hard rain), MIchelin wiper blades and Michelin Hydroedge tires. Michelin rubber is expensive ($20 wipers, $175 tires) but necessary around here. Don't cheap out on automotive rubber!!!

[txedghill]

The worst place to drive in the rain is east of Huntsville through the Sam Houston forest. Sometimes the rain comes down so hard there your visibility goes to about 2 feet and you have no choice but to pull over and wait for it to pass.

That's the truth! Most scared I have ever been while driving was between New Waverly and Montgomery on the north side of Lake Conroe through the Sam Houston Forest. It was dusk and impossible to see, I was hydroplaning even though I was going only 35mph. Totally sucked

[Bike4Life]

When I was driving a Pontiac from the 1980s, friends thought it was cool to fishtail on a wet turn.

In 1990s, it was so uncool with the Honda Civic that didn't respond to a sharp wet turn. Instead, I went right into the gas station as if I was ready for a full-service fill-up and I was lucky to miss two street poles in between. Just got right back on the road where it belongs.

An now, on a Honda Odyessy, well, I don't make sharp turns anymore but it does feel like when I go hydroplaning, the system seems to automatically switch more power on other wheels and ignores in the wheel that's spinning out of control. I think they call it Trac Control system. It responds impressively when I was ready to correct the steering but surely didn't need to.

When the next hurricane comes, I'll just stay home and be here until blackout.

[Bike4Life]

Then again, for the third blackout this week has been a good practice. I realized that we need to get some disaster preparedness in order. Flash lights and cooking plans are first on the list. I thought my oven could light up but it doesn't. These modern ovens don't work like the old ones where you could easily light a match and light up the oven or stove.

[jfre81]

Long time ago I was turning off the 610 feeder left onto Scott Street in the rain and fishtailed as I went under the overpass. I pulled the wheel to the right, got the wheels perpendicular to the curb and hopped up on it, where I could examine my tires safely (well, this is 610/Scott so that's a kinda relative term). No damage. I backed out, continued up Scott and was a little more careful turning on wet roads after that.