As heavy rains fell Tuesday in Norfolk, Jim Sills watched floodwater start to rise along streets and fill underpasses.
It’s some of the worst flooding he’s seen in his eight years managing Speedy Auto Service on 21st Street. He saw videos of cars attempting to drive through several feet of water, and knew what that meant: Their engines are likely toast.
Sure enough, in the following days, Speedy started seeing the aftermath. The mechanics’ workload “doubled overnight” with a dozen flooded cars, Sills said.
“It's the most we've ever gotten out of a single rain,” he said.
Norfolk’s Ghent neighborhood bore the brunt of this week’s downpour, receiving more than 6 inches within a few hours. Some other areas of Hampton Roads, including Virginia Beach, got less than one.
Officials with the National Weather Service called it a “one-in-100-year” event. That means there’s a 1% annual chance of such a storm, not that it only happens once a century.
AAA Tidewater saw a 14% increase in emergency service calls across the region the day of the deluge, a difference of about 100 vehicles, according to AAA spokesperson Holly Dalby.
As a AAA-approved auto shop, Speedy gets plenty of those, Sills said.
“My parking lot was full of tow trucks,” he said. “We’re trying to get through them as fast as we can. This influx of cars has been killer.”
A couple people got lucky, with minor repairs, he said. But most flooded vehicles end up needing a new motor, which can cost up to $10,000.
“The minute you let off the gas pedal, your tailpipe sucks that water up into your engine,” hydrolocking the motor, Sills explained.
For that reason, if you do end up in floodwater, he suggests keeping your foot on the gas, lightly.
If your car floods while parked, wait until the water recedes before starting the engine.
Tidal flooding that contains saltwater also causes corrosion.
While floodwater crept into some buildings in Ghent this week, cars are often the quickest property to fall victim.
So then what? Will insurance help?
That, of course, depends on your policy, said Greg Holestin, owner of Holestin Insurance based in Hampton Roads, a GEICO-exclusive agency.
Typically, liability insurance won’t kick in because that covers “what you do to other people,” he said.
Comprehensive coverage insures theft, vandalism and “acts of God,” such as flooding – with a deductible.
Insurers will likely consider the car totaled if the cost of repairs outweighs the car’s value.
Holestin Insurance has gotten an uptick in calls this week, as per usual after a flood, he said.
“Either they've been impacted, and so now they need to get to the claims department, or they're concerned that they could be impacted in the future, so now they want to make sure that they have the proper coverage.”
Because Hampton Roads is such a flood-prone area, many vehicles with water damage could be salvaged and returned to the market, he said. When buying used cars, check for signs that it’s flooded previously, such as by pulling the seatbelt all the way out to look for water damage.
“It's going to likely continue to have issues if it was previously flooded,” Holestin said.
He said the flooding is also a good reminder to protect your home through flood insurance. Flooding is not covered by traditional homeowners policies.
All experts have the same advice: Don’t drive through flooding, no matter how shallow it looks.
If you try, Sills said, “just know it’s not cheap.”
