Here is what to do with a flooded car after hurricane Ian:
⚠️ If It's Broken, Don't Fix It - Get Paid Cash for Your Vehicle ⚠️
- Perform a detailed survey of any potential damages
- Take immediate actions
- Reach out to your towing company
- Consult the insurance company
- File a claim
- Inspect the interior
- Dry out the car
- Inspect the electric system
- Check the fuel lines
- Decide your options
Within hours, thousands of people around Florida woke up with severe damage to their homes, properties, and vehicles. In addition, tons of these people realize that their vehicles are completely flooded!
Unfortunately, when water gets into your vehicle, it can cause severe damage, and, in most scenarios, your vehicle will turn into a pile of junk. However, if you're lucky enough, there might be some time left to save your vehicle, especially if you're living in Florida, a little bit further from the hurricane's center.
This article provides a detailed step-by-step process on what to do with a flooded car after hurricane Ian. Our team did an in-depth research for all automotive experts' recommendations to help you take the right actions and protect your valuable investment.
What to do with a flooded car after hurricane Ian?
If your vehicle was flooded during hurricane Ian or any other hurricane, chances are that your vehicle is completely damaged. However, some people are lucky and still have a chance to save their vehicle by taking the right actions.
If you're one of those people, we would like to provide you with a detailed list of a step-by-step process on what to do with a flooded car after hurricane Ian, according to automotive experts' recommendations:
1- Perform a detailed survey of any potential damages
Before you even start your vehicle, you must perform a quick inspection of the vehicle. You want to ensure that you don't start the engine and allow the water to run through the different components causing further damage.
Even if your vehicle is completely soaked, you still have a good chance that some of the car components are still working. However, turning on the engine, you're causing the problem to elevate and reach sensitive elements that might turn your car into junk.
If you don't have the right experience and don't know what to do for the inspection, you might want to call your mechanic or even have one of your family members or friends look at the car.
At the minimum, you need to check what the water level was. For example, if the water level was only covering the wheels, you're in a better situation than someone else who has the water level covering half of the vehicle.
Getting out of estimate about what's happening around the vehicle can help you a lot, especially when you're discussing with your mechanic the next steps to be done.
2- Take immediate actions
We completely understand how challenging and stressful it is to be in a hurricane. Most people will focus on their lives obviously and their main properties like their homes. However, you must act immediately if you want to save your car.
The longer you wait on the vehicle, the more likely the water will get into sensitive components and cause significant damage. Your mechanic might still have some chances to dry out the vehicle and say whatever is left. However, your vehicle will be totaled if you wait a long time.
3- Reach out to your towing company
As we indicated, you don't want to attempt to start the vehicle. No matter what's happening, only the car, you don't want to start the engine until you confirm with your mechanic.
At this point, you might decide that you need the vehicles at the nearest repair shop for your mechanic to take a look at. In that case, you might want to search for any towing company that you are familiar with.
If you don't have a specific towing company that you know, you can type on Google something like a sewing company near me or towing service near me.
Keep in mind that if you know that your vehicle is completely damaged, you might want to sell the vehicle immediately, and if that's the case, you want to check with the potential buyer whether he is willing to pay for the towing company or not.
That's a fact. For example, some companies like Cash Cars Buyer guarantees to buy your vehicle and will immediately pay for the towing service, so you don't have to deal with this hassle.
If you want to learn more about Cash Cars Buyer, you can call us at 866-924-4608.
4- Consult the insurance company
Since you're dealing with a flooded car, one of the most important things you must do is to speak to your insurance company. Yes, you need to take the right actions regarding what to do with a flooded car and hurricane but talking to the insurance company is extremely important.
You need to know from the insurance company whether they cover any damages related to floods. Not every company will cover that, depending on your policy. That's why we even encourage you to fill ourselves with this stuff before we even deal with hurricanes or major disasters.
This way, you'll know whether it's worth talking to the insurance company or even spending the time discussing with them once you understand that your insurance policy does not cover hurricane damages.
5- File a claim
If you confirm with the insurance company that your policy will cover the damages, you want to act immediately and file a claim because it will take some time.
If you've owned a vehicle for a long time and have been in situations where you need interns to cover something, you will understand that it will take a long time. The process will be overwhelming, and if a lot of people file claims to the same company, things will be even slower.
The faster you file a claim, the higher the chances you'll be at the front of the line and get back from them as soon as possible.
6- Inspect the interior
As you're waiting for the towing company and as we're waiting for the insurance to respond, you want to look at the interior and see whether the water got inside the vehicle or not.
Obviously, in flood-damaged cars around hurricanes, water will most likely enter the vehicle and soak the interior.
In that case, you might want to learn about certain methods that help you act immediately and take the right steps to protect the interior and prevent water from causing other consequences like mold and musty smell.
7- Dry out the car
If you realize that the vehicle is very wet from the inside, you want to take all actions needed to dry your vehicle out as much as possible.
For example, if you feel that the water is a lot in the vehicle, it might be worth taking a bucket and removing this water from the car. You might also want to use other methods like the drying machines to help dry out the interior upholstery because the longer you wait, the more likely your vehicle will have a musty mold smell.
If the vehicle starts smelling like water, you will be dealing with significant reductions in the vehicle value because no one will buy the vehicle if it has this type of problem.
There are tons of research outside warning people from buying vehicles that were flooded in water, and one of the first important signs they must pay attention to is to look for this musty smell.
8- Inspect the electric system
One of the most sensitive systems to the water is your electric system. So that's why you need to look at this system first thing and see if the water got to the electric wires or not.
Obviously, you don't touch any of the wires, and it'll want to mess up with this system yourself unless you're an expert. So there's a high chance that you might get electric shocks anytime you turn on the vehicle or mess up with these unprotected wires.
It's a matter of doing a quick visual inspection, and if you feel that water got to that look system, you will need to communicate this to the mechanic as soon as possible. Then, your mechanic should know what can be done to protect the vehicle and save the remaining elements.
9- Check the fuel lines
Aside from the electric system, you must also look at the fuel system. You don't want to turn on the car when the fuel line is broken because there are chances you could be involved in fire hazards.
In that case, you're not only dealing with problems in your vehicle, but you can also cause hazards to your house or people sitting around you.
10- Decide your options
Once you have a good idea about your vehicle situation, then the last thing you want to investigate is deciding on your options.
For example, you want to ask yourself whether you should repair a flood-damaged car or sell it. In most scenarios, the answer depends heavily on the extent of the damage.
If you realize that your vehicle has a lot of damage and repair costs are getting close to 75% or more from your vehicle's value, that's when you want to sell a vehicle rather than wasting your time and money trying to fix it.
Of course, it will be very hard to convince private buyers to purchase your flood damaged car because they understand the extent of the problems they might deal with. However, that's not the end of the world because there are plenty of options in front of you that you can try. Let's look at some of these options:
1- Junkyards
Junk yards are considered the last resort for any vehicle, no matter what's his type or condition. That's why you will see that most people who have flood-damaged cars after hurricanes end up selling their vehicles to junk yards.
2- Cash Cars Buyer
The other thing you might want to try is to sell your vehicle to Cash Cars Buyer. At Cash Cars Buyer, we guarantee to buy your car no matter the extent of the flood damage. If you're nervous about driving this vehicle because of some problems with the electric system, we got you!
All it takes is a quick conversation with our team to evaluate your vehicle and provide you with the maximum offer your vehicle can make around your area. In addition, if you want to learn more about our company, you can call us at 866-924-4608.
Final thoughts
Dealing with a flood-damaged car can be extremely frustrating. What happened in Florida after hurricane Ian is very challenging. People lost their lives, properties, and their vehicles.
This article provided a detailed summary of automotive experts' recommendations on what to do with a flooded car after hurricane Ian. In addition, we highlighted a step-by-step process to help you understand the situation and evaluate whether you should fix your flood-damaged car or sell it.
If you confirm that you need to sell your vehicle, we are happy to help you at Cash Cars Buyer!
Cash Cars Buyer is one of the top-rated car removal companies in the nation that guarantees to pay you the top dollars and provide you with free towing despite your living location around the United States.
Our process is very straightforward and doesn't take more than a couple of days to get your car removed safely and for the most money.
All it takes you is to:
- Describe your car's type and condition
- Receive our instant free quote
- Accept the quote
- Get your car removed and receive your cash payment on the spot!
To learn more about our process and our team, you can reach out to us by calling us at (866) 924-4608 or by visiting our home page click on the free instant online offer.