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Towing companies, car shops busy after this week's flash flooding

5 years 9 months 2 weeks ago Wednesday, June 13 2018 Jun 13, 2018 June 13, 2018 7:08 PM June 13, 2018 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Flash flooding caught many off guard Tuesday. People were traveling through feet of water, and stalled.

“It was very sudden, and we weren't prepared for it at all,” said Suzy Duncan, the owner of Louisiana Towing and Recovery.

The towing company received 120 calls starting Tuesday afternoon, towing 60 vehicles. One still sits at the shop.

“The owner makes the decision on where they want it brought to; either their home or the dealership,” said Duncan.

“It’s a bad indicator if it has to be towed in,” said Daniel Wilkins, the General Manager of Siegen Car Care, who now has to work on these cars that were flooded.

“You pull the air filter out and look to see if it has water in it, because it usually has to go over the air filter and gets sucked into the engine,” explained Wilkins.

Normally, Wilkins say water-damaged cars either have water inside the interior, or inside the engine. Neither are good situations.

“An engine doesn't like to compress water, therefore it usually breaks a connecting rod to the piston, and then you're talking about replacing an engine,” said Wilkins. “If you're talking about interior flooding, generally speaking, you'll have electrical problems in the car for the rest of its life.”

Wilkins says the problem with getting water inside your car is that a lot of wiring and technology is located underneath the seats and dashboard, causing those electrical problems.

Best case scenario, he says, avoid water when driving if you can.

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