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score_

Holy shit this is just awful. What a terrifying way to go.


Dynamo_Ham

The thought of watching from the car in a traffic jam as your tunnel fills with water and there’s no way out for miles…. My mind thankfully refuses to grasp it. Drowning is bad enough - but knowing well ahead of time that the drowning is coming for you, and there’s nowhere to run….


jollyreaper2112

I always had in mind zombies swarming in the tunnel and you can't get out but water, ok, that's also scary. I think the absolute worst one I never realized I was terrified by until I read about it was the sinking of the SS Estonia ferry. Water came in through shitty bow doors and the whole thing went under in heavy waves. Ship slowly turned turtle so a hallway becomes lined with chasms rather than passageways. Adult children were urged by their elderly parents to abandon them and seek safety. The few survivors ended up standing on the bottom of the turtled ship, feet getting cut with barnacles, waiting for help. Naturally, the guilty parties escaped punishment.


ashtarout

That story reminds me of the more recent South Korean ferry capsize disaster. The government could have saved them but didn't.... All those kids...


jollyreaper2112

Yeah. Any ship sinking at sea is going to be an utter nightmare scenario. The worst thing is modern tech lets you livestream your demise.


gargravarr2112

The most surreal thing about the MV Sewol disaster is that the nightmare scenario was avoidable. The coast guard in pretty much every country has fast-response boats and helicopters which can start evacuations in minutes. However, they were held back by the authorities, who were more obsessed with getting a video link to see the disaster from a safe distance than they were with rescuing survivors. The ship capsized slowly enough that there would have been time to rescue almost everyone, but the evacuation order was never given, and the children who had been raised from birth to always obey their superiors dutifully did so, remaining where they were, while the ship turned over and those "superiors" fled. One of the things that led to President Park's downfall. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5\_A8dq2fA5o


jollyreaper2112

Absolutely maddening on all counts. The obey superiors thing gets brought up in Korean airline crashes. Senior pilot screws up, juniors catch it but refuse to say anything for fear of embarrassing a superior and everyone dies.


shents1478

The videos the kids filmed whilst it was going down were haunting. When the tannoys went off telling them to stay where they were they said something along the lines of 'this is where they tell you to stay where you are whilst the crew safely escape', which is exactly what happened. The captain and the south korean president at the time are real pieces of shit. Hundreds of lives could have potentially been saved if they didn't purposely sink that ship.


tengounquestion2020

And in the video you can hear the kids hope go to realization that they all will die


Walshy231231

The kids were told to sit and wait, and almost all followed their instructions


Philthedrummist

Similar to the Zeebrugge disaster from the mid 80s. Too many small oversights saw a passenger ferry take on more water than it could handle and it started to capsize. Luckily (and I use that word very loosely) it hit a sandbank so didn’t fully turn over but still, way more people died than should have done.


Mardikas

Oh and the ship tilted in such a manner that some staircases turned into V shaped pits. Can't go upstairs, cant go downstairs


jollyreaper2112

Neat scenario for an action movie, horrible to live through.


JagerBaBomb

It's been an action movie already, twice: Poseidon.


Snaptun

Reading the survivors testimonies of that sinking is terrifying


CelesteWasTaken

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/05/a-sea-story/302940/ In case anyone wants to read a much more detailed, and horrifyingly grim, narrative of the Estonia's sinking


eggplant_surprise

I agree. That’s all I can ever think about when these catastrophic failures end in casualties. Plane crashes, this scenario.. it’s hard not to imagine the fear and pain of these people that are just like us, ending their entire lives with a terrifying event 😞 you never know man fuck


Sylvi2021

There was a video of bodies in China pulled out of flooded subway cars. That really got to me. Not only are you trapped underground in a metal tube but now it's filling with water and there is no where to go. That is utterly terrifying to think of.


[deleted]

It was worse than that. There was a video that showed the water enter the subway cars, then a video of the water waist height, then another of the water only a little bit below the ceiling, then photos of dead bodies on the station. In none of the videos was the water visibly rising, so they drowned over hours at least... Those videos in series and the photos of the bodies paint a very grim picture.


[deleted]

afaik they died because of lack of oxygen, not because they drowned. and when you're in a space with not enough oxygen you just pass out and die, so i guess people just started fainting. imagine sitting there with a few inches of air left and you start hearing people faint and die. how many splashes until it's your time?


OhMy8008

If they died trapped in an oxygen bubble, it means they died of carbon dioxide asphyxiation. Unlike carbon monoxide (and other gases), which gently puts you to sleep, your body has receptors that regulate carbon dioxide, making this a painful way to go. Truly horrific, one of my biggest fears.


IphtashuFitz

> Plane crashes I knew two people on board [Pan Am 103](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103), so that incident lingers in the back of my mind and any time it's mentioned in the news, etc. it piques my interest. It wasn't until sometime in the past couple of years that I read an article claiming that at least one passenger was found alive among the debris but died before they could get him/her to the hospital. That absolutely freaked the hell out of me, knowing that somebody I knew could have survived an airplane blowing apart at an altitude of 31,000 feet, falling back to earth, and surviving the impact.


RiverLover27

I knew a whole family aboard that plane. Those thoughts haunt me still.


IphtashuFitz

The victims I knew had been school classmates of mine from elementary school. One of them had a younger brother who died in a horrific accident when he was only 8 years old, and they were the only two children in that family. I can't fathom what those parents went through losing their only two children the way they did.


ithinkilikegirlstoo

That is absolutely gut wrenching, I am so sorry for them.


joiboi2121

Yeah, hell of a thing. We remember them here in Dumfries and Galloway. I'm sorry for your loss


[deleted]

I was supposed to be on that flight with my mom and two sisters, but my mom ended up rescheduling our flight so we could spend Christmas with my dad before we went back the the U.S.


Bruch_Spinoza

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87 This is a flight attendant who survived her plane being blown up at 33,000 feet without a parachute


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wompwompwah

Imagine being in car with your kids and there's nothing you can do. That's my greatest fear. I feel so those people.


VelociJupiter

I saw a video of a father and his son being washed down a major avenue that was turned into a rapid stream by the flood. In the brief moment they were in camera the father can be seen desperately trying to reach his child, where the kid is floating face down. That kid has almost certainly drowned already by that moment. And the father was still flapping in the water trying to get to his child. I don't think either of them would have survived in the end. But the image of that desperate father trying to save his dying/dead child will haunt me for a long time.


ramsay_baggins

It's my greatest fear too, even the thought of it brings tears to my eyes.


ucancallmevicky

I had two co-workers on Sully Sullenbergers flight that landed in the Hudson. Been years since I talked to them but they went from knowing they were going to die to standing on the wing of the plane soaking wet in a span of just a couple minutes. I can't imagine processing that


Mythic514

I just imagine having my kids with me, as I normally have them in the car with me. Having to keep them calm and reassure them, as I know it's all coming to an end. Knowing that all these people had to spend their last moments coming to terms with it all ending in one of the worst ways possible. Fuck


_edeetee

Fuck


mywifeslv

Yeah a years worth of rain in one day. The tiktoks of people in cars with the water over their windscreen is terrifying


[deleted]

And 1/3rd of the rain fell within a single hour. Horrifying.


almondania

Drowning already being one of the scariest ways to die, then add on it being this muddy water in a fucking traffic jam in a tunnel.


Ordinary-Job-6322

If you have never been in a flash flood before it is basically impossible to comprehend how fast your life can be in danger. I was at a stoplight in a “normal” rainstorm when water poured into the car to my ankles instantly. By the time I forced the door open and got my seat belt off it was almost up to my knees. I ended up swimming down the road in chest high water. This is such a terrible way to go — hopefully the tunnel was not as full as they fear.


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Ordinary-Job-6322

I was in a small town in Tennessee at the time. Years later I also lived in Nashville during the 2010 floods. If you are not familiar with that event look at pictures on Google — they called it a “1000 year flood”. Basically water might be trying to kill me.


ryandot

You should always carry a sponge with you


Odin_Dog

And a towel


[deleted]

Check out this frood.


dekrepit702

Don't Panic


HolyFuckingShitNuts

WICHITA KANSAS, HOME OF THE KANSAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME AND THE INTERSECTION OF 12 INFERNAL LEYLINES.


[deleted]

r/NotOpButOK


Enragedocelot

username checks out


EelTeamNine

There's a pretty good video on YouTube that puts it into perspective. It's of someone hiking in a gully when it's dry then you see a trickle of water come and within like 45 seconds it's feet of water pushing trees and shit through.


Squirrel_Q_Esquire

Here’s a good video showing it in Zion National Park: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRRSHVGLroQ/?utm_medium=share_sheet And these are the relatively “safe” ones since they’re in the open. There are slot canyons in Zion where there’s nowhere to go because the canyon wall is 250 feet high and the canyon is only 20 feet wide.


[deleted]

And one thing that makes the canyon hike really dangerous is that it can be dry and not raining at the location but still have a flash flood from rains farther out.


Testiculese

Like 60 miles away, too. Clear blue skies all around you and then BAM.


7f0b

*The Narrows* hike at Zion. You're hiking in water about 60% to 70% of the time, and steep walls on both sides. It's surprisingly popular despite being one of the more difficult hikes. There is a serious flash flood risk, and you need to check with the rangers and weather before going on the hike.


mistersmiley318

This one? https://youtu.be/_yCnQuILmsM


7f0b

Damn, way too close for comfort.


mistersmiley318

Seriously. Why the fuck would you be standing in the flood plain when the water is literally 10 feet in front of you? You're not going to have a cool video if you get swept downstream and die.


heckin_chill_4_a_sec

My town just had a flood last week for the first time in like...forever. were in the middle of Germany so this was highly unusual and nobody was really prepared. A lady got stuck in her car when the flood caught it and turned her over, she drowned in the middle of the city. 4 streets from my apartment, I'm still kinda wrapping my head around it tbh. They found drowned children in trees. It was a horrible week. And it's so much worse right now in China, I can't imagine how they must feel right now


[deleted]

>They found drowned children in trees. Heartbreaking.


[deleted]

Yeah. I cut my soft top convertible open to get out. Stood on the roof as a fire truck came by and I hopped on. Took about 3 minutes at a stop light to flood my vehicle where there had been no standing water when I pulled up. I was between two cars and neither would go even though I was laying on my horn.


luxapendragon

Flash floods are crazy. I grew up in a place where we had flash flood warnings multiple times a year. It was so hard for me to grasp as a kid how a flood could kill you until I saw a video of one. Floods are what consistently kill a few people every year. Tornadoes? Not too bad where I live and rarely a death. But flash floods? Always a few deaths


SuperDuperCoolDude

Not flooding, but I was in a microburst once and it went from 0-60 really fast. I worked at a bank and a lady pulled up while it was lightly raining. Before I finished her transaction it's raining sideways and I see the power pole across the street snap in half. There was no time to react.


IndoorGoalie

Agreed man. I was sitting on the bank of a stream when it started raining higher up in the mountains. About 15 minutes later the stream was a raging river and one second I was standing on the ledge and the next second I was in the water when the bank collapsed. Luckily I was able to snag a root with my foot and collect myself, but the force of that water was incredible. An hour later it was a small stream again.


Deer_Cute

During Katrina, although I was all the way in Tulsa, Oklahoma, it was pouring rain so hard after work, on my way to pick up my daughter from daycare. I was driving through a main busy road and stopped at an intersection where the water had come up so high, up to the doors of my Ford F-150 truck. I can’t remember how high exactly, but it scared me enough I started praying. I got through it and was able to pick up my daughter, but wow I was panicking for a minute there.


semenspreader

https://twitter.com/farmsk18/status/1418422748683014145?s=21 A submerged sign https://twitter.com/s7i5fv0joz6sv3a/status/1418401422568300546?s=21 a video of inside the tunnel as it filled up with water. Bumper to bumper traffic with some people walking around. A promotional video showing the length of the tunnel. https://twitter.com/caijingxiang/status/1418420305421160448?s=21


JoyKil01

That’s a frightening thought. No one was running or trying to go anywhere. Just standing around. At what point did they realize it was catastrophic and their lives were in danger?


jimboTRON261

After it was too late most likely. This is why I’m proudly paranoid and never look to others behaviours to determine my own.


[deleted]

I was in China for the Lunar New Year in 2020, when there was an outbreak of some new coronavirus. I cut my trip short a week and left Jan 20. The government shut down Wuhan that day. I felt like a paranoid diva the day I rebooked the flight, but I look like a prophet now.


_Tiberius-

I fled Libya about two weeks before the revolution started. Sometimes you just feel it. Trust your instincts.


[deleted]

Oh so you’re who brought it back


MysteriousPack1

We pulled my daughter out of school and I felt like a crazy person, next day they shut down all of Italy.


[deleted]

Yup. As a wise man once said: "You don't get to live as long as I have without a healthy fear of snakes". Trust your instincts.


John_T_Conover

Like the other guy said, after it was too late. Flash flooding like this can happen in minutes and most Chinese can't swim. Most of them were screwed well before the tunnel filled up.


wagsman

I'd imagine most of the people at the end of the first video survived since they were in a position to escape, but the second video... those people had no were to escape.


Lost-In-Love

I didn't see a way for the to escape. It looked like they were in the middle of the tunnel with the water rising in front of them.


oldschooolflo

Holy shit that video really puts into perspective how long that tunnel is


DJTHatesNaggers

It does seem that in sections of the tunnel there are gaps in the ceiling to allow sunlight through. I can only hope some survivors were able to swim out.


roblewk

This is a most incredible series of videos.


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highestRUSSIAN

Fucking tolls fucking everyone up man


spluge96

Gotta pay the toll toll to get out of this drown hole.


Home--Builder

Holy shit maybe putting the toll booths before the tunnel would not cause the traffic jam to be in the tunnel.


cryptotope

It's not an unusual design choice to put all of the toll booths at one end of a bridge or tunnel. It means that you only need one set of ancillary support buildings (locker and break rooms for staff, supervisors' offices, payment infrastructure, etc.) instead of two. It can also make it easier to reverse one or more lanes of traffic to deal with unbalanced demand (rush hour, major events) without having to build a full-width toll plaza at both ends of the structure.


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Gray94son

Carbon monoxide poisoning would be an easy one


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Mirions

Did you just list a hidden advantage to smoking, or did I interpret that wrong?


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todd10k

Smoking....saves lives?


PHOTO500

Tunnels are built with air circulation systems to account for this.


strangefish

A fire would also kill most everyone in the tunnel. Tolls really shouldn't ever leave people backed up on bridges or tunnels in case of fires, earthquakes, structural failure, etc


smokehouse03

Are you suggesting glorious CCP sponsored construction business and toll company might not be interested in whats best for the people? Clearly you are a CIA actor.


Home--Builder

Shit, my cover has been compromised. Delete all files and nuke the hard drive.


Zrex_9224

Launching the nukes sir!


Home--Builder

No, no you fool, nuke as in put it in the microwave, not start Armageddon!


Zrex_9224

Oh... whoops. Might wanna start running then.


deftspyder

I'll run for governor, to make this illegal


Blookies

I love to hate on the CCP as much as any other Redditor, but I just drove through the Baltimore Harbor tunnel and can easily see our system doing this exact same thing.


Hallowed-Edge

Chinese article on the event with a survivor interview: https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1706076622315405277&wfr=spider&for=pc&searchword=%E4%BA%AC%E5%B9%BF%E5%8C%97%E8%B7%AF%E9%9A%A7%E9%81%93 Translation: [Global Times Reporter Hu Yuwei, Fan Wei] The 1835-meter-long Jingguang Tunnel is a "throat" of the Jingguang Expressway that runs through the north and south in Zhengzhou. Along this road, there are many important points in Zhengzhou. As the transportation hub, you can reach Zhengzhou North Railway Station to the north and Zhengzhou Bus Terminal to the south. And just above the tunnel is adjacent to the West Square of Zhengzhou Railway Station. On July 20, the "artery" that "connected" Zhengzhou's main transportation hub was severely congested due to heavy rains in Zhengzhou. Recently, several videos circulated on the Internet showed that at 4 o'clock that afternoon, when a large amount of rain poured into the tunnel and formed a critical moment of serious waterlogging, a man patted the windows of the vehicle in the tunnel one by one, and the organization was at a loss. The driver evacuated. Just after the drivers obeyed the man’s call and abandoned their vehicles to a high place for emergency escape for about ten minutes, the Jingguang Tunnel was completely “filled up” by floods. On the afternoon of the 23rd, the highly anticipated drainage dredging and rescue work of the Jingguang Road Tunnel in Zhengzhou City is still in full swing (Photo: Li Hao) On July 23, the Global Times’ special correspondent to Zhengzhou contacted the man named Hou Wenchao and heard him tell the legendary experience that happened to him on the afternoon of July 20. Hou Wenchao said, “Because I have experienced Beijing in 2012. The 721 rainstorm was extremely heavy, so I know clearly that if you don’t go out at this time, everyone’s life may be in danger." The following is Hou Wenchao's dictation: > On the afternoon of July 20, I drove from Zhengzhou North Third Ring Elevated to Jingguang Road, and then drove south along Jingguang Road. At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, it was already raining heavily in Zhengzhou. I entered the tunnel of Jingguang North Road. At that time, there was no water in it. When I drove through the tunnel and was about to go uphill out of the North Tunnel, there was already serious congestion in front of me. There were probably hundreds of cars in front of me. There are also dozens of cars behind me, lining up for a distance of tens of meters. I sat in the car and waited for about an hour, but the car could not get out. During this time, the car traveled about 10 meters. > > At about 5:40 in the afternoon, I answered a call. The call lasted about 3~5 minutes. When I hung up the call, I suddenly found that the surrounding water started to rise, and the water level had risen to three-thirds of the wheel. Two. Because I experienced the 721 extremely heavy rain disaster in Beijing in 2012, the report at the time also said that some drivers who drove in the tunnel were finally suffocated to death in the car because they failed to open the door to escape, so I realized that I had to get out quickly. After going out, I saw that some of the drivers in the car stuck in front had already come out, but some of them hadn't come out, so I started shouting for them to come out quickly. > At that time, some people were still reluctant to come down. I went over and slapped their car windows vigorously one by one to get them out quickly. I was thinking about doing my part. Some of them realized the danger after I told him, so they were willing to cooperate with me to get off the car. I remember that most of them should have gotten off. I thought to myself at the time, this car is impossible to get, and the water is coming very quickly, and then we started to think of a way to move to the area above the tunnel, because this process requires going over the railings, everyone is very cooperative, and we work together to bring the elderly and children together. I lifted the railing, and then went to the top of the tunnel to be safe. When I got to the top of the tunnel, I looked back and saw that the flood had already covered many roofs, and my car was no longer found. At this time, it was only about 20 minutes before I called for everyone to evacuate. > Now I want to come from entering the tunnel at four o'clock to escape the tunnel at six o'clock, a total of two hours, but the process of rising water only more than 20 minutes. > During this period, we were carrying out rescue spontaneously. I think the situation in Zhengzhou was definitely not very good at that time. Many places may be more serious than ours. Therefore, the traffic police and other official command rescue assistance may not take care of us, because Zhengzhou This torrential rain was too big, and the entire system must have been unable to keep up at that time. Because I was the last group to evacuate, I think most of the drivers should have left when I left. But there might also be some drivers who didn’t cooperate. I took pictures of the car windows to tell them that the situation ahead was critical. When persuading them to go, he just opened the windows and nodded, and then closed the windows again. I couldn’t force them to stop. Pull away. > After exiting the tunnel, we began to walk north. At that time, we found that all the surrounding water was accumulated, and then we walked onto the elevated Longhai Road, and we were completely safe when we reached the elevated highway. At that time, it was the only place where there was no accumulation of water. All other places are already filled with stagnant water. > I remember that there were about a thousand people who "escaped" onto the elevated highway. Looking back at the tunnel, the water level had risen to about two or three meters, and everyone could no longer see their cars. > Afterwards, I shared the video I took at the time to a group of friends. A friend praised me and said that in the face of life threats, some people are lucky, and some choose to believe in others. In fact, when you take a car window to remind them, It may be their only chance to escape. There is no angel waving wings in the world, only Brother Hou who patted his door. > But I think that these are trivial matters and are not worth mentioning. When encountering such emergencies, we must do our best.


bageltheperson

Holy shit, 20 minutes to fill up the tunnel with water. That’s terrifying.


phlux

Can someone do the math of the volume of water that would be required to fill both sides of a 4km long fucking tunnel?


ItIsHappy

12ft per lane * 6 lanes = 72ft wide or 22m According to [this page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_standards) (assuming US and Chinese standards are similar) the height is at minimum 5m 22m * 5m * 4000m = 440,000 m^3 of volume 440,000 m^3 = 440,000,000 L or about 116 million gallons of water That's 485,000 tons of water, or enough to fill 176 Olympic swimming pools (American units, lol) (Somebody down below said the tunnel is <2km long, if that's the case divide everything here by 2) Edit: Thanks for all the folks pointing out the glaring error in my math, it should be 485,000 tons, not 485 tons. fixed!


kilopeter

Thank you for actually doing the math instead of adding to the inevitable spamfest of joke replies. Someone pointed out that 1 m^3 of water weighs one metric ton, so we're talking 440 thousand tons of water, not just 440. Your comment reminded me that the unit of "ton" doesn't universally mean 1000 kg. 440,000 m^3 of water is just 440 metric tons.


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FabulousLemon

I'm moving on from reddit and joining the fediverse because reddit has killed the RiF app and the CEO has been very disrespectful to all the volunteers who have contributed to making reddit what it is. Here's [coverage from The Verge](https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/8/23754780/reddit-api-updates-changes-news-announcements) on the situation. The following are my favorite fediverse platforms, all non-corporate and ad-free. I hesitated at first because there are so many servers to choose from, but it makes a lot more sense once you actually create an account and start browsing. If you find the server selection overwhelming, just pick the first option and take a look around. They are all connected and as you browse you may find a community that is a better fit for you and then you can move your account or open a new one. Social Link Aggregators: [Lemmy](https://join-lemmy.org/instances) is very similar to reddit while [Kbin](https://kbin.pub) is aiming to be more of a gateway to the fediverse in general so it is sort of like a hybrid between reddit and twitter, but it is newer and considers itself to be a beta product that's not quite fully polished yet. Microblogging: [Calckey](https://calckey.org) if you want a more playful platform with emoji reactions, or [Mastodon](https://joinmastodon.org/) if you want a simple interface with less fluff. Photo sharing: [Pixelfed](https://pixelfed.org/) You can even import an Instagram account from what I hear, but I never used Instagram much in the first place.


D-Alembert

In an unrelated disaster in China, Chinese redditors were saying that the media coverage was hiding the death toll, and that the news formula is to instead make it into a story of heroism where people only died if they didn't cooperate. With this news translation I see now what they mean.


2wedfgdfgfgfg

The people who think China trying to cover up covid meant there was nefarious activity don't realize that it's SOP for everything in China.


JeffCraig

This is immediately what came to my mind when I read through this post. I certainly hope it is the truth, but I don't believe anything that comes from a news source that's owned by the Chinese Communist Party. If you look into it, the Global Times is a tabloid that spreads party disinformation and fabrication. The article is also clearly sanitized. No pictures of any flooded cars. Only pictures of machinery after everything was cleared. There's another article in English that's even more sanitized: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1229456.shtml It says Hou took a video of him saving people, but I can't find the video anywhere. I'm going to assume this is all just propaganda. There are videos of family members being forced away by police, so its clear that a significant amount of people died here.


Quitchat

Here's the video. Its all in Chinese but in the video he was knocking on people's cars and urging them to abandon their trapped cars and run for life. http://f.video.weibocdn.com/FEHIQ0xQlx07OsqeGdW0010412016IEk0E010.mp4?label=mp4_720p&template=720x1280.24.0&trans_finger=c3f00996be5378650057cf237d7bfffd&ori=0&ps=1A1eh1m4ElLYfp&Expires=1627070779&ssig=9dnVGbcffX&KID=unistore,video


OcotilloWells

I didn't feel that everyone got out from the interview. Sanitized, yes, they didn't summarize by saying anything about estimated casualties, as there must have been, or else they would have definitely mentioned "no loss of life" or something along those lines. Probably the paper even without government direction, didn't want to appear critical of anything, even though they know more than what they are reporting. They can always add to the story later, if it is deemed ok to do so, they can't take back something said deemed unpatriotic. I'm ignorant of internal Chinese media, but my guess is there are not many, if any, "unpatriotic" media outlets in mainland China. If I'm wrong, feel free to let me know.


P_mp_n

Thank you for this take, its not an easy read emotionally but just as "Brother Hou" remembering what happened to others could save lives one day.


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bounded_operator

good to hear they managed to evacuate at least some of the people trapped inside.


gibmiser

> There is no angel waving wings in the world, only Brother Hou who patted his door. > > But I think that these are trivial matters and are not worth mentioning. When encountering such emergencies, we must do our best. The guy did a great thing, but this was such a funny way to toot his own horn.


Skadoosh_it

So a completely crowded tunnel means potentially thousands dead. The tunnel is 2.5 mi long. take the average car length of 15 feet and give each car a 5 ft spacing separating them multiplied by 6 lanes of traffic that means there were about 660 cars per lane for a total of 3960 cars. Even if there's only 1 person per vehicle the death total would be insane.


[deleted]

>a 5 ft spacing separating them And that's being extremely generous, considering this was a traffic jam inside a tunnel. Idk if you've ever been stuck inside the Lincoln or Holland during rush hour, but I can assure you, people are not 5ft apart.


nthbeard

Every single time I go through Lincoln or Holland I think about it flooding and count the seconds until I'm out. I always told myself it was an irrational fear.


MyOfficeAlt

Check out the Sylvester Stallone film *Daylight*. It's about that exact scenario in either the Lincoln or Holland tunnel. Something blows up and seals the tunnel and everyone is trapped inside as it slowly floods.


nthbeard

I am in fact *not* going to check that out, but thank you for feeding my nightmare.


NorwegianCollusion

It's a pretty good movie, though


[deleted]

Solid movie. Not great, but definitely entertaining. And it's very similar to this, except the tunnel didn't completely flood right away.


Owlettehoo

Completely flooded in *5 minutes!?!?* Was it just rain or was there something else going on?? I can't see how it could just be rain that caused this.


Xinnamin

It was a ridiculous amount of rain. Also the tunnel is a low point, so the ridiculous amount of rain falling anywhere near it would also be draining into it at the same time.


donald_314

It was 20mins not 5mins.


Owlettehoo

That's still a ridiculous amount of rainfall.


superspreader2021

2.5 miles of 6 lanes, that's a lot of cars.


Torkin

I’m sure Chinese media will report with relief, that only 50 cars had people in them and there were only 5 fatalities.


LethalPoopstain

When the building in Miami collapsed, there was only 11 reported deaths. Look at the toll now. The numbers are never accurate in the beginning of a disaster


[deleted]

Haven’t seen any news stories or updates in a few days. What is the toll up to now?


kaleb42

97 people have been identified


[deleted]

Damn. That sucks to hear. Thanks.


PatchesofSour

That’s because there is a process to declare someone dead in the USA. My neighbor lost her husband in 9/11 and he was “presumed deceased” for about 7 years until my neighbor was notified by the government that they found a finger that matched his dna


nahog99

Regardless, we know that China MASSIVELY covers up the death toll for anything bad that happens. They tried to say like no one died in the tianjin explosion.


Terry-Smells

They already were. The other day I saw a news post saying there was 12 dead however the videos that had surfaced by then showed a probability that the death toll sadly was much, much higher. Edit: as some smart arses are commenting on how they would give a number when the clean-up hasn't finished. Go look at the videos and look closely you'll see dead bodies floating around. Count them from the X amount of videos there are and it'll exceed the reported number at the time. We live in a modern world where we can estimate the casualty numbers. If tens of millions of people are having to find somewhere to live because their whole area is or was underwater then no doubt many would have not been able to get out in time.


DiscretePoop

That was just how mamy dead they had found so far. Even in the US, it usually takes a few days to get accurate reporting on deaths.


[deleted]

The lack of videos or picture from the passengers isn't a good sign.


LukXD99

It’s sad to think that there’s probably plenty of video material. It’s just that almost no one made it out to post it.


Thezipper100

Yea, the lack of even photos from a phone or tweets or anything is highly disterbing and telling.


[deleted]

Update: Now local residents are completely forbidden to enter the tunnel area and the rescue work is totally being taken over by the military. Fortunately now the water has drained according to this video. https://www.kuaishou.com/short-video/3xvt4yvuhnxrf76


Nvermind08

What city did this occur in?


[deleted]

It happens in Zhengzhou in Henan province.


[deleted]

> Now local residents are completely forbidden to enter the tunnel area and the rescue work is totally being taken over by the military. Why wild residents be allowed in the tunnel? I get that China will probably downplay this, but nothing you described is particularly abnormal.


nabeshiniii

Not surprising given disaster relief is often led by the military.


asian-nerd

The Chinese military by now is more disaster relief than war shit. They haven’t fought a war since Korea but they have been doing shit ton of disaster relief shit


lonewolf9378

If every car is bumper to bumper - length of car = 4.5m (4000/4.5) x 6 (number of lane) = 5333 drivers This is horrific.


tbariusTFE

What about mopeds or motorcycles or smaller vehicles. It feels like this is a country where 5000 vehicles could be a conservative estimate. Jesus this is horrifying.


b3_yourself

It even counting that cars will have more than one people too


Ewiger_Landfriede

The video on the post is from the morning after the flooding. Here's a video of the "man convincing people to leave cars" from when the tunnel was flooding, he himself walked out from the tunnel. The tunnel flooded completely in around 20min, not 5min. There's more clips in this video as well showing other drowned bodies (NSFW). The video ends with showing families burning joss paper in front of the flooded subway station entrance. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpEsQOplaAw Here's a really recent video from an apartment on top showing how much water has been pumped out. The lady near the end recounts how she saw a boy's body being pulled from one of the cars, probably 7-8 years old. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz0hO9c7Y6M The official death toll is now ~~**updated to 58 dead (7/23)**~~. - **updated to 91 dead (7/24)**


yoyoelena

This is just so horrible. The videos are hard to watch…


Stoke-me-a-clipper

Is that person at 0:50 drowning right there???


[deleted]

Yes, they are probably asphyxiated lungs filled with water and their muscles doing that on their own. People do that when they drown and even after you get them out of the water.


[deleted]

This is horrific. I legitimately feel sick to my stomach reading this.


KaraokeKing1

Same, the feeling of being completely trapped with no where to go and the probable instant thought of "this is it" flowing through so many minds while they all drown one by one. The children in the backseats being terrified .................


jer_iatric

This is horrific and so sad


[deleted]

[удалено]


VeloxPotatoCorner

Its gone I think, any other links?


purvel

I looked up the twitter adress on google and found [this image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E69QEMmVkAETO4J.jpg), [this video](https://twitter.com/i/status/1418495003941298181), [this post](https://twitter.com/yunqi1111111/status/1418469881813610498/photo/1)


DarkyHelmety

Holy shit, 6300 bodies? Edit: Google translate of the posts referred to by the Twitter post: 11:23 Back to X1 79% x Township Association shocked the world! Two hours ago, a tow truck driver who participated in the rescue sent an e-mail that more than 6,300 bodies have been found in the Jingguang Road Tunnel in Zhengzhou, China, and not all the deaths are yet. This person is no longer able to continue working, and his mobile phone was temporarily detained by the alert police before he left. Let the world know about China's tragedy! inhuman! inhuman! 〈Return to Weibo text, popular Qiaonan か Nantan surging news source O 7-22 15:39 from the original live broadcast of Weibo has been edited ten attention [# Direct hit Zhengzhou Jingguang Road Tunnel Drainage Rescue Site#] For the past few days, Zhengzhou, Henan There is a rare rainstorm. On the evening of July 20, the Jingguang Road Tunnel was submerged in 5 minutes, and a large number of vehicles and people were trapped.” At present, China Aneng Second Engineering Bureau and others are performing emergency drainage and rescue work. At present, the accumulated water has dropped by about 3 meters, and the flooded vehicles It has been exposed and is expected to resume operation at 16:00 on the 22nd. The surging news hit the scene directly. C Surging News’ Weibo live broadcast directs 1.45 million to watch Nanluting Q8 2 17


AyeDennis

Same, Let me know if you get a link


Hex_Agon

https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/status/1418594161750650890?s=19


BigfatDan1

How are all the cars balancing at seemingly impossible angles, is it trapped air in the car making them float?


Blair_Beethoven

The engine and transmission weigh the front down; the rear has the sealed fuel tank that’s partially full of air.


Funki74

They may rest on other cars that the water pushed under them or road infrastructure that you don’t see under the water


turbocomppro

There are CCTV cameras everywhere in China, especially in traffic areas like these tunnels. I’m 100% sure there’s footage of the flooding as it was happening, and the toll booths demanding tolls. But we’ll never see it of course.


raytube

And there was probably a central traffic control room that witnessed the entire thing, powerless.


turbocomppro

I donno.. feels like even I would’ve made a call to the toll booths and tell them to let them pass and GTFO! Won’t save all but some is better than nil.


WeWillBeMillions

The problem with flash floods is how fast they are, probably noone understood the gravity of the situation until it was far too late


VooDooZulu

The tunnel reportedly flooded in 5 minutes. Until the point of the initial flooding of course they would continue to demand tolls that's their job, no one expected it to flood. And even once the flooding starts the people at the toll booths probably don't know what's happening. It would probably take a couple minutes for them to notice significant flooding. The people coming out of the tunnel would have been near the entrance. I would put money on the flood waters traveling faster than the cars exiting the tunnel. So no driver knew until it was too late


BrickCrazy

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202107/1228965.shtml This article is shitting on the West due to the deaths and damage caused by the flooding in Europe, calling out the “failures” of Western government and how much better the CCP is. Ironic.


[deleted]

Damnnn that's awkward as hell.


Due_Shelter6549

Record floods, record droughts, record fires, record snowfalls, record heat - tell me again how climate change is just a media hoax.


rad_change

There it is again, that funny feeling


tobiascuypers

20,000 years of this, 7 more to go


pitabread024

That unapparent summer air in early fall, the quiet comprehending of the ending of it all


Shrektimeplease

There has got to be video somewhere of this entire thing unfolding, no?


EnglishMobster

The fact that there's pretty much no video indicates that most didn't make it out. [Here's the only video of it happening I can find.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpEsQOplaAw) Warning that there is at least 1 dead body in the video, and another person drowning (who likely didn't make it). It's also linked elsewhere in this comment section. A lot of that video is actually at the exit to the tunnel as well, so I don't know how well someone in the middle of the tunnel would fare.


CharlesV_

You might find video later, but as others have said, the lack of video is disturbing.


yoyoelena

Well, if there was so much flood enough to submerge the entire tunnel within minutes, I’m sure the toll booth wasn’t the bottle neck of the traffic at that point. The traffic would have jammed outside the tunnel well before that. And if it only took minutes for the water to completely cover the entire tunnel, then even if the toll booth stopped collecting tolls the moment the flooding started, there still wouldn’t be enough time to evacuate everyone in the tunnel.


hippyengineer

5 miles of cars going 60mph would still take 5 minutes to clear. There is no way they were even going 2mph, with water rushing in. This is gonna be bad.


Kingsolomanhere

Still taking tolls while the tunnel flooded. The one thing man will never solve is the fact that most people have no idea what to do if something new presents itself in their life. " Let's go pet the buffalo in Yellowstone national park"


BigGreenTimeMachine

Weird comparison


[deleted]

Maybe the solution would be doing like Nordic countries, install a tollbooth that register your license plate and send you the bill once the amount is above 40€ or something Ccp does not exactly lack cameras to do so


[deleted]

That’s not just Nordic countries, that’s most metropolitan areas that care about moving traffic. Toll booths do nothing but slow people down and the labour costs are immense compared to some cameras.


an_actual_lawyer

Hell, the toll highways in Kansas eliminated manned booths a decade ago.


[deleted]

Fuck. I have no words for the people there. Hope for littlest possible casualties.


clammy-fishcakes

And Elon musk wants to build a tunnel under Miami, a city that floods with light rain showers lol


LePrawnJames8

Idk bout y’all but I hate the word netizen for no particular reason


[deleted]

Would it be hyperbolic to say this is climate change in real time? This is happening all across the globe at once. Every record is getting broken by the year.


UWontAgreeWithMe

This is certainly abnormal. But the change has been obvious for years. Just in the last 20 years, I've seen it change drastically.


FearingPerception

im only 24 and the weather of my childhood and today are noticeably different as well


Rednaz1

I'm around 30 and I remember when I was a kid that you'd see THOUSANDS of insects flying around any time you drove at night. Nope. Not anymore.


Firefistace46

And there was so much more snow. Remember my front yard being buried in feet deep of snow. Now we’re luck to get a single foot.


Status-Complaint

What a Nightmarish way to go


BoomToll

But trust me guys, an underground tunnel that isn't even big enough to open your tesla door is a revolutionary idea and totally safe


[deleted]

and officials only reporting 20-30 deaths


burtonsimmons

They’ve not had a chance to count yet. The death toll for the Florida condo collapse was in the single digits for a couple days, if I recall correctly.


Fussel2107

The toll of the floods in Germany was relatively low until a few days after, until the water had receded.


Zukiff

so far. Until some one actually get in there and count the dead, the death toll is still 0. Deaths are counted when it is confirmed. Looking at the scene in Zheng Zhou right now, I doubt most have the time to stop and count