Brandon William’s has owned his auto repair shop in Lubbock for fourteen years, and said that whenever the city floods, their phones tend to ring off the hook. After yesterdays down pours, repair shop employee, Misty Rowan came in to work ready to assist.
“Calls started pouring in and I tried not to be frantic about it, I just knew that we had to take care of them, and and that was my top priority.” said Rowan.
Williams analyzed the first vehicle that arrived this morning and said there was water in the air conditioning vent which indicated how high the levels were yesterday. With some vehicles being in worse conditions than others, he said that the extent of the damage can be determined by how fast the person was driving through the water at the time.
“If you were going fast in the water like this one did, the RPM of the motor is going to take a lot longer to slow down,” said Williams. “When it fills the cylinder with water thats what bends the valves.”
The shop said that a lot of times people don’t realize the extent of the damage that the water can do to your vehicle. It’s common for your engine to stall and die, but just because it doesn’t in the water, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get it checked out. Williams said people will come to his shop weeks after encountering water realizing something is wrong.
“Electrical and water you’re going to get shorts, corrosion, that kind of stuff,” said Williams. “People don’t realize you’re going to have a lot of problems even if your car didn’t die in the water.”
Repair shops are able to replace a lot to salvage the vehicle, but it all comes down to time and money. Williams said he’s had to replace engines before which can be pretty pricey but they really try to work with people.
“Depending what kind of insurance you have comes down to a lot,” said Williams. “Its usually considered a ‘road hazard’ but a lot of people don’t realize this is insurance related until they bring them into the shop.”
