California farmers sacrifice their pickup trucks to stop water from flooding their crops

Sometimes you control a flood with sandbags.

Other times, you use less conventional methods, like two full-size pickup trucks.

That’s what California farmers were spotted doing when a levee broke near their orchard.

And the footage above shows exactly how far they had to go to hold the water back.

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Ford and Chevy pickup trucks drive to the levee

The clip, posted to Reddit by user euronmous, opens on a silver pickup already sunk to its windows in rushing water, its tray piled with dirt. 

It’s not parked on the levee – it is the levee. 

Then comes a blue truck, tray also stacked high, pushing straight in to park alongside as a second line of defense.

Together, the two vehicles form an instant barricade, turning from machines into makeshift sandbags.

The desperate move was filmed in California’s San Joaquin Valley, the heartland of the state’s agriculture. 

This region produces about an eighth of California’s output – everything from grapes to nuts. 

In this case, farmers were scrambling to protect a pistachio orchard.

Losing it would’ve meant more than just one bad season. 

If the water had taken the trees, it could’ve wiped out decades of growth and millions of dollars in future harvests. 

“The cost of the technique is weighed against the damage,” one Redditor pointed out in the comments. 

When you’ve got a flood chewing through your land, you don’t have time to shop for alternatives.

You just use the tools at your disposal.

And this time, the ‘tools’ were a Chevy Silverado and a Ford F-150, filled with dirt and sacrificed to the river. 

Later, crews piled more soil over the pickup trucks to finish the patch. 

The orchard was saved, at least for now. 

The pickup trucks? 

Supposedly recoverable once the water drops, but whether they’ll ever run again is another story.

Not the first time machines have been sacrificed

California’s been through one of its wettest winters on record. 

Storms have hammered the state for months, pushing rivers past their banks and overwhelming defenses that were never designed for this much water. 

The San Joaquin Valley has taken the brunt, and farmers here are used to improvising. 

But climate extremes are forcing them to go further, faster.

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time machines have been sacrificed. 

For all of those haters and doubters – here is what it looks like now – trees protected as well as community nearby. #cawater #flood #cawx #desperatemeasures #agriculture pic.twitter.com/177rcdww7q

— Cannon Michael (@agleader) March 14, 2023

Bulldozers have been left in wildfires, trucks sunk in rivers, excavators abandoned mid-rescue. 

The choice is brutal but simple – lose a truck, or risk years of harvests.

“Repairs during a flood are whatever you have available that works,” one Redditor said.

And on that day, ‘whatever worked’ meant driving your Ford and Chevy to the levee when the levee wasn’t dry.

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