Good evening friends. After tallying up the all the votes from multiple pages it looks like number 2 took the cake. So onward we go. The title of this story is; “Scott, Just Take Another Street”
The year was 1999 and was a very rainy day in Jersey City, NJ. Jersey City is located right across the Hudson river from NYC. When you are in Jersey City, you can see downtown Manhattan very clearly from across the river. In the early 1990’s Jersey City was offering a lot of tax breaks for Wall Street firms to hop on over the Hudson River and work in NJ instead of NYC.
So Jersey City became another mini Wall Street right across the river. If you lived in NYC, you would take the Path Train at the World Trade Center and within a few minutes you would be on the Jersey side. In 1999 I lived In Edgewater NJ with my ex wife which was North of Jersey city.
On my way to work one morning during a rainstorm there was a Huge flood at the main intersection. Normally I would take a left and pull into the office building I worked in. Jersey City had been known for their drainage problems for 40 plus years. Feel free to do a Google check to verify. Terrible draining problems in that area.
The thing is I’m pulling up to the intersection and I see 2 to 3 feet of water and I immediately stopped to access the situation. I see a lot of cars backing up and heading to another street. But at the same time I saw that Jeeps and buses managed to drive right through it. Now I had a Lexus at the time which is pretty low to the ground as you know. So the genius risk taker that I am said “Go For It” — So i approached the 2 to 3 feet of water with my car and this is where things got out of control. Firstly, my car was immediately lifted off the ground and slightly floating in a circular motion. The water started coming into my car like a title wave, yes inside the car. I was freaking out.
The buses and SUV’s that drove by were literally sending wakes into my car just like boats would if they were passing by. So the wakes were making my car spin quicker and more out of control. Now the water has reached the window level of my car inside and outside where I could Not open the doors or get the windows down. Circuits started blowing out, I smelled smoke everywhere. I was saying to myself; “I’m am going to drown to death or be electrocuted to death” — As the panic set in further, I knew had had to take serious measures. I started trying to kick the through the windows of my car. I was not able to kick through pressure of all the water on the other side of the windows. Now I was doing the lightening fast memory flashback thing people do right before they die.
I almost felt relieved knowing I did everything I can but I was knew I was not getting out of this one. I had been a trader for several years at this point and my mind worked very fast. And it said to me this trade called “Life” is over, you lose.
When I sat back to just let the water keep rising inside the car, I looked up and forgot I had a sunroof in the midst of all the panicking. So I slid the first layer back and then clicked the switch and for the love of God, the sunroof opened. That power had not got on out yet on the roof of the car. Next thing you know I climbed through my sunroof and was standing on the top of my car. The entire office from the 12th floor was looking down on their colleague standing on top of his car which was completely flooded by this point. Now that i didn’t die, i was completely humiliated.
Next thing you know my assistant Alex pulls up in his SUV right next to my car, and I hopped on the roof of his jeep and he drove me out of the flooded intersection. He said to me “Why didn’t you back up like all the other cars and just take the other street?”
I told him when I leased the car, the Lexus salesman said this car is great in all weather conditions. My assistant said to me “He didn’t mean 3 feet of water, he was referring to the seasons”
Moral of the story. When you see a huge flood at a traffic light, just take another street even if it takes you an extra 10 minutes. This was such a dumb decision that the insurance company almost rejected my claim. Having said that, sometimes stupidity works in your favor. Taking into account the lease payments I made, the value of the car and the residual value, the insurance company actually had to cut me a check for $6000, yes, 6k.
I guess this is what they mean when they say, “Blissful Blindness”
