AUSTIN (KXAN) — It’s a slogan designed to save lives. KXAN meteorologists have been using it ever since its creation.
“Turn Around, Don’t Drown” celebrates its 20th Anniversary.
Those who have lived in Central Texas for a long time know that flooding is one of the top weather-related killers. The National Weather Service reports an average of 90 deaths each year from flooding. More than half of those deaths are caused by people driving through barricaded roads into flooded roadways.
What some people fail to understand is that it takes as little as six inches of swift-moving water to knock an adult off their feet. What’s more, and putting this in Texas terms, twelve inches, the height of a cowboy boot, is all it takes to float most vehicles.
When your vehicle floats, there is nothing you can do.
You’ve heard “Turn Around, Don’t Drown” but do you know where it began? Its roots are right here in Austin. An Austin native, Hector Guerrero, is the father of TADD. He has seen floods in Austin growing up, including the devastating 1981 Memorial Day Flood along Shoal Creek, in which 13 people lost their lives.
Guerrero declined to be interviewed but pointed KXAN to Paul Yura, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the New Braunfels National Weather Service office.
Yura spoke about TADD’s origin, why this area is flood-prone, and the penalties drivers who bypass those barricades and barriers may face.
The Watershed Protection Department years ago started a safety campaign to promote TADD in which students in the Austin area were asked to submit pictures using the theme “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.” The contest has since evolved into creating a 30-second public service announcement.