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
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.”
So clearly the town has a lot of work ahead of it, as does that Fiat Chrysler dealership.