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A lot of excellent advise & learning tutorials here on the e-brake.
About the extensive flooding from several feet of rainfall:
I was driving in to Houston on Thursday afternoon on Hwy 290 from Austin. I had a scheduled work assignment to be completed by 8:00 pm Thursday night in the Southwest Houston suburb of Sugarland. Population 300,000+.
I was listening to the AM radio station KTRH, 7.40 while driving in from the West. The Mayor of Houston advised us to top off our car's fuel tanks - that's it! I did so before I hit town to work. Nothing was ever said about evacuating that I heard. I was of the feeling that I should wave off the assignment or check to see if the work had been canceled because of the incoming hurricane rain. I was also concerned about losing my job, if I unilaterally decided to steer clear of Houston all together, and get to higher ground by driving North. I pressed on to do my job.
I started getting concerned about the predicted heavy rain event from the hurricane in Houston. I know Houston. I knew there was no high ground in Houston. I spent the night in Northwest Houston near Eldridge Parkway FM 1960 and Hwy 290. It started raining steady by early afternoon. I was starting to get anxious about getting out of town before I got caught in 2' or more of rainwater - becoming marooned. The AM radio reported a 20 mile bumper to bumper I-45 traffic jam Northbound between Conroe and Huntsville, TX. I elected to drive straight West on Hwy 290/Hwy 6 to the higher ground of College Station, TX - 100 miles away. I spent Friday night and Saturday night leaving for Dallas in the early afternoon of Sunday. It had been raining there in College Station since late Friday night. 20" in 3 days or so.
Since it was only a peripheral heavy rain event expected from the hurricane, there was no wind event to take out power lines to homes, so perhaps that is why no evacuation was even suggested by local Government authorities. I dunno. My instincts and experience with the Coastal Gulf floodplain, was to get out of town Friday.
I have been taking heat on FB, from some fellow Military Academy Alumni that I am FB friends with for calling the Mayor foolish for not advising voluntary evacuating of citizens. The Mayor of Corpus Christi, TX did such. He did not make evacuating mandatory.
The argument for not advising evacuation is based on the disastrous highway jams of people running out of gas and water, stranded in their cars on a choked highway. That argument carries merit. I dunno. I do know this - I was pretty sure I was looking at 2' of water or so on the roads I traveled there - and I personally started to get tinges of panic on losing my fine motor home to flood waters being stranded 250 miles from home. I got out, thank God.
By now, Friday, Sept 1st - I heard the Mayor of Houston on Dallas radio stations now advising people with water in their homes to evacuate.
Above photo I snapped from Hwy 59 Sugarland Texas looking West when getting off work Thursday night at 8:00 pm. The leading thunderstorms from Harvey moving in.
Last edited by Skid Row Joe; Sep 2, 2017 at 02:11 AM.
100% correct. This weather event set an all-time record for rainfall in the US going back to the beginning of weather records. It is simply impossible for every major metropolitan area to rebuild for worst-case scenarios. It would require tearing everything down and starting over.
The largest single cause of this event was the massive amount of development that has occurred around major metros over the last 30 years. Paving over land that used to absorb water was a major cause of this flood in Houston and elsewhere, and was a double whammy because it put millions in harms way. This was as much a human-caused disaster as anything else.
I might suggest that you take a number of pictures of the car submerged, open the hood and take photos, etc. Document as much of the inundation as you can.
My reasoning is that the car -might- just fire up and run when it dries out, but you still may want it totalled, and being able to show how the car was flooded may help.
Of course, you may want to keep the car, I do not know... I'm not sure what kind of later jackpots flood damage can cause. But document it so that you have more options.
Sorry you have to go through this! I love the blue w/white Vipers as well.
I feel your pain - Hurricane Floyd put 37" of water in my house, so I've been there.
I found something that resembled higher ground for the car, but it still had 9" of water inside - enough to get to the computers. Like mine, yours may run after it dries out, but corrosion etc will do its own creeping damage....
To whomever said parking garage - time, only so many around, for residents only, lots of other people with the same idea, lots of different reasons why that idea may or may not work. This area, I can count the number of multi-floor garages on one hand.
Anyway - the Floyd experience is the main reason why the house I am in now is on top of a hill, some 7 ft above street level.
OP, I know its a pain, the paperwork is tedious, and "the system" will not seem to move fast enough. You'll likely see your insurance people long before you see FEMA, and it will seem like forever before any relief money gets to you.
But it will happen.
What's left of Harvey is over the DC area today, and about to exit the US. What a difference a week makes. We got a gentle 1.5" day-long rain and no wind.
However, Irma is making loud noises in the Atlantic and could be here next week. We're entering our peak period of hurricane risk, and almost exactly 14 years ago, Isabel wiped my Annapolis waterfront property out in mid-September 2003. It was also the result of flooding not wind.
As the numerous other posters have said - VERY SORRY to hear about your loss !!! Try to put the material loss aside and be very thankful that family and friends are survived this record breaking storm !!!
IMO - talk to your insurance company and get some info on what they will pay you for the car, and what the buy back value is. You don't have to make a decision immediately. If anything like the half million cars are totaled that the news is talking about the insurance companies are going to be overwhelmed for quite a while.
You can get the car out a number of ways - putting it on wheel jacks, a couple of conventional hydraulic jacks, pulling the wheel and releasing the tension on the electric parking brake mechanism, just cutting the two parking brake cables, or simply pulling it out with either a wrecker or another vehicle...
Due to the sheer number of totaled vehicles - the buy back number may not be all that high. Hopefully - you can drain and replace the oil, and either replace the battery or try to jump start the car. (Personally - I'd pull the plugs as well - just in case). If the motor cranks - crank it over for a few seconds - then replace the plugs and try to start it. As other posters have indicated - the car might fire right up. You would probably want to know this little piece of info (about if the car will start) before you make a decision about buying it back from the Insurance Company. (I say to draining the oil first - as the motor may have ingestedted enough water to hydrolock, and draining the oil will ensure that any excess water in the crankcase goes away)...
BOTTOM Line - you have an asset that the Insurance Company should be replacing. However - the asset's value may be SIGNIFICANTLY higher than what it would cost you to buy it back. This is not a decision that needs to be made in a day - try to get some additional info and make the best decision that you possibly can !!!!!!!
My view on the above is that if you have the expertise and time to take a car apart, trouble-shoot, and replace all the water-compromised electronics yourself, then yes, you may have an asset worth more than buy-back cost. However, if you have to rely on others to help you get everything sorted out, walk away fast.
Getting it running is just step 1 in what may be a long process. Water damage to electronics, may continually rear it's ugly head over months and even years.
Why didn't you drive it to the top floor of a long term parkade and leave it there until the storm passes, you have absolutely nothing to lose buy doing so?
From: Calgary, AB. There's a reason why white was the only color offered on every year Corvette. Proud Canadian German Jamaican!
St. Jude Donor '09, '12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17
Originally Posted by Raazor
I know, right.
Hey everybody on the eastern seaboard, there's a hurricane forming, it's called Irma, you might want prepare yourselves, make plans for your family, MOVE YOUR CARS, stock up on provisions.
Sorry that you are caught up in that mess. You may be able to use "jacking dollies" to roll the car out of the garage...they are available at Northern Tool and other car parts stores.
Best of luck!
I'd be real careful with the rolling dollies on a drive way. It's not flat and would get away from you and be in the street before you know it.
Wow.
