Michelle Stasiuk was driving through pooling water she says she couldn’t avoid during a storm in Calgary on Saturday.
She was running errands after the downpour of rain and then the “check engine” light came on in her Toyota Highlander hybrid.
“I shut the car off and thought, ‘oh I hope this starts again.’”
It didn’t.
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“It’s not like my tires were submerged or anything – it was fast speed, puddle you know that did the ‘fsssh’ out the sides and I thought, ‘oh, that was a big one.’”
One of the owners at Gigantelli Auto Services looked at her vehicle and said the water got in underneath the carpet in the front.
“There are electrical components underneath with the wiring and a lot of computer components and when they get wet, of course, electrical and water don’t like each other,” Joe Gigantelli said. “And as you can see in the carpet…it’s all water logged.
“The insurance company will come in and take a look, and they’ll probably write it off.”
Gigantelli said the “unbelievable downpour” Calgarians have experienced has spurred an increase in the number of damaged cars he’s seen—and such repairs could cost thousands. He says the longer-term problem is what could happen to future buyers.
“If you smell mould, if you smell mildew, carpets that are wet—buyer beware.”
The Calgary Fire Department said it gets multiple calls every time there’s a significant storm.
“We find some low-lying areas that fill up very quickly and people driving in those areas unfortunately aren’t aware of how deep the water is sometimes and they try and attempt to go through the water and find it’s deeper than they thought and their vehicle stalls,” Carole Henke said.
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She said the department recommends avoiding all deep puddles since it’s hard to gauge the depth.
“If people try to self rescue—which happens—there could be areas where manhole covers are missing and you can step into even deeper water,” she said. “It’s going to take longer to get where you want to go to go around, however you might not get there at all if you wind up in deep water.”
She said it’s important to backtrack instead of trying to cross through a deep water area—unless water is rising to a point where you shouldn’t be in your vehicle.
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