A Fiat Chrysler dealership lost lots of cars to a major flood in northeast New Jersey on Saturday. A now-viral video shows a number of vehicles getting carried away like toys in a creek by a violent torrent before crashing into a bridge and into each other. The resulting mountain of soaked and bashed-up trucks and SUVs is a reminder of just how powerful flash floods can be.
The mayor of Little Falls, New Jersey declared a state of emergency Sunday after the town was ravaged by flash flooding, causing the Peckman River (which flows into the nearby Passaic) to sweep away and destroyed a number of new and used Dodges, Jeeps and Rams from Route 46 Chrysler Jeep Dodge. Here’s a video of that destruction via Facebook user Miguel Galo:
Here’s another video showing not only the swept-away dealership inventory, but also the pure chaos on the streets above:
According to ABC7, the owner of a towing company said roughly 16 cars had been extracted from the river by early Sunday, telling the news site:
“They’re all filled with mud, rocks and whatever you can flush into a car. It’s there.”
One of ABC’s reporters tweeted out this photo apparently showing the aftermath of one of the dealership’s vehicles
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In a letter to residents, Little Falls declared that it had closed off the Jackson Park part of town, and asked all residents to remove vehicles parked on any of nearly a dozen streets.
Luckily, ABC7 says the water has begun subsiding. Still, there’s apparently a huge, muddy mess to clean up. And indeed, in the letter to residents, Little Falls officials say they cannot pump water from basements because of “structural concerns.”
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So clearly the town has a lot of work ahead of it, as does that Fiat Chrysler dealership.