What to do if you slide on ice or hit a flooded road

Why Atlanta gets caught out by both

This metro has a mild winter that turns dangerous a few times a decade, and a summer that produces intense, fast rain. Ice is the rare hazard, and rare is the danger: because it almost never happens, treatment capacity is thin and drivers get little practice, so a single storm does outsized damage, the way the January 2014 event stranded over a million people. In summer the risk changes shape entirely and becomes water, moving fast, in places that sit lower than the road around them. The September 2009 flood dropped more than 20 inches in 72 hours across the metro and killed ten people, and flash flooding in the Chattahoochee basin and other low-lying areas is the recurring summer version of that.

Where ice hits first

Ice does not arrive evenly. Bridges, ramps and overpasses lose heat from above and below, so the elevated segments of the Downtown Connector, the I-285 Perimeter, GA-400 and the ramps at Spaghetti Junction glaze over while the ground-level road a block away still looks clear. Untreated side streets freeze next and stay frozen longest where they get little winter sun. On the exurban stretches of I-575 and the outer ring, thinner treatment means the grades ice first and clear last.

Flooded roads and underpasses

Atlanta's flood risk on the road is rarely a river. It is a low-lying road or an underpass that sits lower than the ground on either side and fills during a heavy rain while the approach looks completely normal. Water in a dip is deeper than it appears from a driver's seat, because you cannot see the low point until you are in it, and a stalled car in filling water is a genuinely dangerous place to sit. If the water is still rising, get yourself clear first and tell us that when you call.

Never restart a car that stalled in standing water

If your engine died while you were driving through water, do not turn the key again. An engine draws air in through the intake, and if the intake is sitting below the waterline, cranking the starter pulls water into a cylinder instead of air. Water does not compress the way an air-fuel mixture does, so when the piston comes up to compress it, something has to give, usually a bent connecting rod or a cracked engine block. That single extra crank is often the difference between a car that needs a tow and a car that needs a new engine.

Salvage assessment or a normal tow? What decides it

How high the water got is what matters, not how deep it looked from the driver's seat. If water reached the door sills, the floorboards or higher, treat this as a standing-water inspection rather than a routine breakdown: get the vehicle to a shop or your insurer's preferred facility before anyone tries to start it, and let them check the engine, transmission fluid and electrical system before you spend a dollar on repairs. A vehicle that took water into the cabin can end up with a salvage or rebuilt title in Georgia, so this decision has paperwork attached to it and is best handled as an insurance and title question up front. If the water only came up around the tires and the engine never took a breath of it, this is usually a normal stuck-vehicle recovery and tow. A vehicle that slid into a curb or guardrail on ice should get the same suspension and alignment check before it goes back on the road.

Why an ice- or flood-affected vehicle goes on a flatbed

A vehicle that slid on ice or sat in standing water, even briefly, may have compromised brakes, a soaked electrical harness, bent suspension or damage in places you cannot see from outside. Ask the assigned operator to quote a flatbed for ice or flood recovery rather than a wheel lift, so nothing drags, nothing spins, and nothing is asked of a drivetrain that might already be damaged.