So this is a new one for me, so I wanted to share it with you, we can all use this knowledge.
As I’m sure everyone has heard Texas, North Texas especially has been getting pelted with rain, endlessly. I mean that literally. I don’t remember a day we haven’t had rain. I feel like we live in Seattle. Seriously.
But anyways, my husband is on his way home from the 9 – 5, in his case 7 – 4 and of course, it’s raining. Has been all day. When we finally got home, our rain gauge said we got 3 inches of rain. TODAY! That’s a lot of water.
You can imagine, water is everywhere, puddled up, the ground is saturated, which is rare in Texas, but man I’m telling you when it rains it pours, and that statement has never been more true. On the frontage road to the highway almost at the stop sign to turn on the street that leads us home, a VERY deep puddle sends water up the intake and hidrolocks the engine, and then the baby threw a rod. It’s a Mazda 3. Just 3 years old, well really not even 3.
Very scary situation for me. I take care of the money and I don’t see that cash coming from anywhere to repair the engine, I cannot even imagine the bill.
I call my Dad in a panic. He’s a mechanic and he knows things that regular people like me don’t know, I mean my husband could fix it himself if he had the time and a lift and the right tools, but he won’t get paid for that, so we gotta get someone else to do it so that he can work, we have bills to pay, lol.
My Dad asks me like it shoulda been common sense, “Did you call the insurance company?” WHAT?! Why would I do that I ask him, he says, “Well what’s the worst they can say?”, and I can get with that because I live by that philosophy, I just never thought about calling the insurance company. I mean, we didn’t wreck it, it rolled onto a puddle and never rolled off, lol.
So I got off of the phone with my Dad, at best he could get us a vehicle to drive while we get the baby fixed. I tell my husband and think on it some more, planning rebuttals in case they came up. The intake is an aftermarket part, you see. And while I’m writing this the day it happened, the 26th, I’m not posting it until I know my insurance is going to pay the claim.
I called the insurance company, we have insurance with Farmers’ Insurance Group. No Texas jokes allowed here, it’s a good insurance company. 
Anyway, I get Melissa and she asks me for our policy number, yada yada….on with the story, I tell her what happened and that the bumper got a hole in it while I was pushing it home with my car (she made me so proud!). So I get the number of the adjuster and the claim number, etc. I tell her I have a question.
This is what I ask, “So when Mr. Heglund calls me tomorrow he’s not going to laugh at me and tell me I’m crazy is he? I mean this is a legitimate claim right?” I still have my doubts, you can tell. She says, “Oh yeah, we live in Oklahoma and we get rain like ya’ll do and a few years ago my mom was going down our street which is a hill that we live at the top of and the stop sign is at the bottom of, and her engine locked up completely because of high water, and State Farm paid for her engine to be replaced. It IS a legitimate claim, I mean you collided with the water, or that wouldn’t have happened, it hit the water, and stopped right there, that’s a collision.”
At this point I assured her I knew she couldn’t tell me Yes they ARE gonna pay the claim, or NO they’re not, but before I post this article – we’ll know the answer to that.
Here’s a pic of the rental…
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Just when you think a girl has had enough bad luck.
After this article was written and we recovered from the shock of a downed vehicle, we ran out to get some fast food because it was much too late to try to cook.
While in the drive-thru waiting for the vehicle ahead to move along, my husband and I still reeling from this situation, the car ahead goes into reverse and starts to back up! I’m in total shock that this is even happening so naturally it took me a split second to think and start honking (hindsight is 20/20 – I should’ve reversed and it never would’ve happened) by this time however she was too close and she hit me. Backed into MY baby!
There were expletives and eyes rolling and at the end of it all that woman told me she didn’t see my lights and didn’t realize anyone was behind her. At which point I told her that “Drive Thru” generally means exactly that, Drive Thru! Not back up!
We went home and stayed home.
