Massive storms affected the Northeast last week, as several inches of rainfall, tornadoes, and even an Earthquake were reported as a storm cell moved throughout the country.

Now, the Southeast U.S. is getting a taste of a separate storm cell, and in various states in the region, rainfall is coming down in massive amounts. It has started to move out of the country and over the Atlantic Ocean, but several inches fell in major metropolitan areas yesterday on April 10.

One of the cities that felt a massive part of the storm was New Orleans, Louisiana.

According to a report from USA Today, more than 118,000 homes and businesses were without power from Texas to Georgia on Wednesday night. At least one person in Mississippi passed away.

New Orleans experienced between five and eight inches of rainfall during the storm. Winds of up to 80 MPH were also reported.

While officials in New Orleans warned people of flooding and advised them to stay off of the roads to avoid any danger, a Tesla Cybertruck apparently did not get the memo:

Officials urged people to avoid driving in New Orleans on Wednesday due to severe flooding, but one intrepid Tesla Cyber Truck driver tried to punch on through. pic.twitter.com/n27EdGFKeW

— AccuWeather (@accuweather) April 11, 2024

Initially, Tesla had big plans for the Cybertruck, and CEO Elon Musk said it would be able to cross bodies of water like rivers, lakes, and seas as it wanted to equip the pickup with the ability to be waterproof in certain conditions.

Musk wanted the vehicle to get from Starbase to South Padre Island in Texas, a roughly 6.5-mile float.

As a result, Tesla equipped the Cybertruck with Wade Mode, a feature that aims to protect the battery pack by pressurizing it. It also raises the vehicle’s ride height:

Tesla Cybertruck has a feature to help with driving through water

We saw a few instances of the Cybertruck making its way through some bodies of water as it drove through the ocean on the shoreline and also took on a pretty tall task in deep water test.

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CEO Elon Musk has maintained through the past four years that the Cybertruck would be able to travel through water, and the Tesla community has asked for “Boat Mode” as an available feature.

Last year, Musk even stated that he wants the Cybertruck to have the capability to travel across small bodies of water, including a channel between Starbase and South Padre Island.

While we have yet to see if the truck is capable of that sort of water travel, Tesla has already added something called “Wade Mode” to help with large amounts of standing water, which can happen during major storms.

Wade Mode is featured in the Off-Road Baja settings of the vehicle and is described as:

“Raises ride height and pressurizes battery when driving through water.”

 pic.twitter.com/siTMdJ8uvC

— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) December 6, 2023

We have seen the Cybertruck travel through the tide of the ocean, which happened just days before the delivery event last week.

Tesla Cybertruck hits the beach and runs through ocean water

However, we are still skeptical that it would be able to adequately travel through anything that is truly challenging, like a pond or a channel, as Musk previously aimed for.

Musk said in October 2022 that, in order for the Cybertruck to be an effective water travel vehicle, “You’d need an electric propeller mounted on the tow hitch to go faster than a few knots.”

Tesla has not talked about this propeller, nor did it mention it on the recently-released page of Cybertruck accessories, which launched just a few hours after the first units went into customer hands last Thursday.

There is certainly the chance that Tesla could develop something along these lines in the future, but the capabilities need to be tested extensively before it would even be close to recommended as a potential option for those who want to cross over small bodies of water.

Given that the automaker used several videos during its initial presentation to display the Cybertruck’s speed, acceleration, and towing capabilities, if it was capable of traveling through water at this point, Tesla would have certainly included that footage.

Perhaps this feature is more aimed toward standing water that can accumulate on roadways in an effort to protect the vehicle and its battery pack.

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