can turn to the comprehensive coverage part of your
car insurance policy to help you with weather damage
to your vehicle.
And there’s plenty of damage in Texas and North
Carolina, where vehicles were submerged by water
from heavy rains in recent weeks. Here is helpful
advice for drivers who need to deal with water
damage to their vehicles.
What Your Insurer Can Do
First thing’s first when you want to fix up your car:
contact your car insurance company. They’ll start the
claims process.
More than 3 out of every 4 drivers in the U.S.
buy comprehensive coverage , according to the
Insurance Information Institute. It is an optional
form of protection that addresses weather-related
damage to a vehicle, including flooding.
A claims adjuster will come out to look at the damage
to your vehicle. Insurance companies will declare a
vehicle totaled if the repair costs are high. And since
flood damage can cost a pretty penny to fix, be
prepared that your vehicle could be declared a total
loss.
What You Can Do
The insurance adjuster might not be able to get to you
right away to survey your vehicle damage. Until then,
there are some things that you can do to dry out
your vehicle:
The “high water mark,” or how high the water got
when it flooded your vehicle, is a good sign of whether
or not you should declare your vehicle a total loss.
According to Popular Mechanics, water as high as your
dashboard is a sign that your car is totaled. You can
tell how high the water got by taking note of the
debris (leaves, rubble, etc.) in your car’s interior.
Don’t start your engine. Doing so could worsen what’s
damaged in your engine, transmission and fuel system.
Just to be safe, you can also disconnect your battery.
If your car was flooded by saltwater, it’s likely
totaled. Saltwater is especially damaging to engines
when they’re submerged.
If your vehicle is declared totaled, you’ll want to
research your vehicle’s value so that you can negotiate
the amount you get for the total-loss claim .
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