What’s next for cars submerged

Juan Deluna spent his morning hard at work to get his car out of the mud near the corner of Bob Hope Drive and Varner Road.

“We all each had a shovel and we were just shoveling under the car and the mud was like stuck up in there,” said Deluna.

An hour later, he was able to drive away. He was one of the lucky ones, as many others remained stuck in the mud.

We asked Debbie Brodbeck of I-10 Collision Center in Thousand Palms what was next for the cars and their owners.

“The most important thing is call your insurance company and get the ball rolling it’s the only way to get back on the road,” she said.

Brodbeck also said if the storm did damage your car, your insurance should pay for it.

“The insurance companies will be hiring people from out of our area to come in to assist because this is a really bad storm that we had,” added Brodbeck.

She also said sometimes the damage may not look like anything. For example, a car at I-10 Collision Center looked perfectly fine from the outside, but Brodbeck said it was a total loss.

“Once they’re submerged they tend to look okay,” said Brodbeck. “But, they don’t smell okay and they don’t run okay. The electrical is all compromised the computers don’t know what to do.”

According to Brodbeck, some people who visited her auto shop did not have insurance — and their cars had up to $5,000 in damage. She said this should serve as a remind to everyone to make sure they have insurance.