Deepika Blogs…

Week 3: Cambridge – When it Rains, it pours, and it floods, and it breaks….

Well technically it is week 4 but I wasn’t in Cambridge much last week so no time to explore. Ok so you know New England has been hit with a heat wave the last couple weeks. Well this week it rained. And boy did it rain or what. So I thought that’s what I’ll write about. Rain in the city, the joys (not) of getting rained on.

Lesson 1: There is a reason people don’t keep cars in the city. When it rains, they stay home! or wear the raincoats and go out on foot. They most certainly do not drive!

After getting completely drenched walking home from the T, we decided we will drive back home and do some chores. Yeah right!

So as we drive out from our street, we’re like “this is not so bad”. “Not so fast”, a voice in my head said. Just ahead of us was a street which was flooded and there was water up to our knees. Since it was too late to turn around (there were cars behind and in front), we decided to brave it. BAD IDEA!

The car stalled, we started the engine again and somehow got it out of the mess and parked it to the side. It was too late. Something was really wrong, the car started making really bad noises and look at all that smoke coming out of the exhaust.

Long story short, the car’s gone! It had to be towed to our car dealer which ended up costing us a lot!

We called up our insurance and when we described what happened, she said “We might just have to call it a loss!” It’s a new car! Oh well, it is what it is. Atleast we have the other car and since Gagan doesn’t need it right now, I can drive it.

On our way to the car dealer, the tow truck driver gave us lot of tips to talk to the insurance agency. When I asked, could we have done anything to avoid this, he said “No”. When the water got into the engine when it was hot, it cracked it. All the oil leaked out and now its toast. Even if we didn’t restart the car, it would have been the same. So I don’t feel so bad. He was quite helpful actually. Like I said.. kindness and greatness is all around us.

The whole Cambridge/Somerville area was flooded in just half an hour of rain!

From CNN: Heavy rains cause flash floods in greater Boston area

Oh well, At least we made it home safe, thanks to my friend Emily who picked us up from the Car Dealer and dropped us home. Monday morning the ordeal starts 🙂 But… I am not going to complain. It happens, what are you going to do?