This is a true driving story.
I was 22 years old. I had already been driving for many years (8 or 9 years). My Japanese fiance (婚約者） had returned back to Japan, while I finished my last semester (学期) of university in Texas. He had his own car in Texas, and he left it for me to use. It was an old blue Datsun. I loved that old car.
One night, I was driving back alone to my house from university. It was about a 1 hour drive. Forty-five minutes of that time was spent on very dark and lonely roads, with few other cars. There were no street lights, only the headlights of my car. It had been raining earlier.
The roads in my area of Texas are mostly flat. There are few hills or valleys. The road I was on at the time was mostly straight and wide, so it was an easy drive. But there was one dip (傾斜？) in the road that I didn't notice. The road dipped down at a point where a dry creekbed crosses the road （周囲より一段低いところにある小川）. That was usually dry because it doesn't rain much in Texas. If it was raining while I was driving, maybe I would have been more careful. But on this night, I had forgotten about the rain that had fallen earlier in the day.
The dry, flat ground of Texas sometimes doesn't absorb (吸い込む) the rain quickly enough, so we occasionally (時々) have flash floods (鉄砲水).
That night the creekbed had become a flash flood, and it was full of fast-moving water from the rain. The creek runs across the road. There are open fields on both sides of the road, so the water runs freely over the low spot in the road from one field to the other.
The dip in the road was so full of water that night, the road looked level (平地) in the beam of my headlights (ヘッドライトの光）.
I drove right (直接）down into the flood water. My car stopped. The engine died. The water covered my car up to the hood (ボネット). It covered the headlights. The left side of my car was taking the force of the rushing water. Water started coming in from the bottom of the doors. My feet were getting wet.
I tried the key. The engine wouldn't turn on. It was already wet. I turned the key over and over, starting to panic.
It was dark. There were no street lights. The only light was from my headlights shining under the water. There were no houses around, only open fields. The water was pushing against the passenger side of my car. I thought, If I get swept into the field to the right, no one will find me until morning. I was afraid to try to get out of my car because the current of the flash flood was so strong.
I bowed my head and prayed, "God, help me! I need Your help!"
I tried the key again, and the engine started! I drove up out of the water! I was afraid to stop again, so I drove slowly, the water sloshing (パチャパチャする？） around my feet as it slowly drained back out of the car. It was about a 10 minute drive from there to my house. I made it home! I sat in my car and told God, "Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!"
You may think it was a coincidence (偶然) that my car started just after I prayed for help. And, if such a thing had only happened one time, I would probably agree. But I have had so many such experiences over the years--too many to be simple chance. I believe that God saved me that night.
My fiance's poor car! The next day, I opened all the doors and windows and washed the car as well as I could. But that poor old car had a terrible smell after that. That terrible smell never improved! It smelled like a swamp (泥沼）.
After I moved to Japan, that old blue Datsun was parked under a big oak tree (柏木）on my grandmother's property. When I went back to Texas to visit, I would see that old car sitting under the tree at Grandma's house, and I would remember that night.
By the way, here is a common expression:
To "be up the creek without a paddle" means to be 困っている！