Video above: Tropical family loses SUV to Bertha’s dangerous surf
BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG) — Tropical Storm Bertha is one storm a Texas family won’t soon forget.
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“The sheriff called, and they told me it had done fell off in the ocean,” said tow truck driver Cody Barnett. When he got to the end of Boykin Court in Fort Morgan, he saw what they were talking about—a black SUV in the surf of the Gulf. “I guessed they parked right there and had a cave in. We’ve had a lot of beach erosion in the last couple of years, so that probably did it,” said Barnett.
A Texas family had watched as Tropical Storm Bertha pushed the Gulf waters higher and higher. Around 4:30 Wednesday morning, they grabbed the kids and made a dash to higher ground. They returned to find their SUV had become a victim of Bertha. “Water got all up in the exhaust and everything; more than likely it’ll be totaled out,” said Barnett.
While not the best way to end a vacation, everyone is safe. “We’ve been really lucky so far with the vehicle we just pulled out being the biggest loss that we have had yet,” said Cpl. Holt Johnson with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office.
But the effects of the storm are still all around: high winds and surf. “If the water looks angry, it is; it is dangerous,” said Johnson, who routinely patrols these beaches. “The waves are big, and they’re coming over, and they look mad, and there is lots of foam; they should realize that is a sign of dangerous conditions.”
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Tropical Storm Bertha will be one of those storms that Texas family will likely always remember, and so will tow truck driver Cody Barnett, “You don’t normally pull them out of the ocean.”…