
A video taken during Tuesday's rainstorm in Burbank, showing a vehicle speeding down a hillside street while surrounded by a torrent of mud and water, had garnered more than 62,000 views on social media as of Thursday afternoon.
"I just got pushed down the side of a hill by a wall of water and mud", Desionne Franklin said in an Instagram video after Tuesday's terrifying ride.
Franklin says his girlfriend was screaming and he lost all control of the vehicle for 30 seconds as it slewed downhill on the wave.
Thankfully though, KTLA reports Franklin "managed to get some traction and maneuver the auto to the bottom of the hill, where several other smashed-up vehicles had come to a rest after similar journeys".
"I could hear a rumbling and the rain was coming down hard and I said 'we gotta go now, '" Franklin said.
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"Rocks flowing, mud flowing everywhere". The sedan is seen nearly floating on the water in the video. "My girlfriend was screaming 'go go go'". After turning the corner, Franklin said the sedan hydroplaned the rest of the way down the hill. "I guess this is going to be it for me, right here", he later recalled thinking.
'One of the cars looked like a wadded up piece of foil paper, ' he said. Other cars were not so lucky. 'You couldn't even recognize what it was to begin with'.
The transplant from Dallas, Texas, says he'll keep his Prius and stay in California, but the next time he's told to evacuate, he won't hesitate. "I just wanted to survive and not end up a statistic".
Waves of mud flowed down County Club Drive in Burbank, creating a river in the road during a winter storm Tuesday Jan. 9, 2018.
"Our home has been severely damaged, but we are safe, and so thankful for that and for the first responders who are working tirelessly to save people", Bridges wrote on Twitter.