Despite Tuesday's sunshine many roads around southwest Georgia remain closed. If you should find yourself face to face with road closure sign it's important you heed the warning.
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Despite Tuesday's sunshine many roads around Southwest Georgia remain closed. If you should find yourself face to face with road closure sign it's important you heed the warning.
"Over half the people who die each year are in vehicles where their car gets washed away," said Chief James Carswell, the Albany Dougherty EMA director.
Besides being potentially life threatening, in some areas like Dougherty County, it's illegal to go around a road closure barricade.
It can also be quite costly should your car become damaged. The amount of damage really depends of the depth of the water. Experts say in one to two inches you're generally fine, but when you get into the 5-7 inch range, is when you'll start having problems.
"If your rotors are already hot it can warp the rotors, which isn't a significant damage but it can cause the failure to stop," said Kevin Swift Owner of Swift Automotive.
Anything over a foot is when you start seeing damage to the gear differentials, which experts say can cost $1,000-$2,000 to fix.
"If it gets up to about 3 feet then you can cause damage to your transmission, or it can pull the water through the intake manifold of the engine, if it does that, then your looking at catastrophic engine failure" explains Swift
That means you'll need a complete engine rebuild or brand new engine, which can cost thousands of dollars on top other repair cost.
Which is another reason why experts say it's best to avoid driving throw standing water.
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