Colombo Flooded Again on Nov 6 — Why Do Drivers Still Push Into Bonnet-Deep Water?

On November 6, Colombo got hit with about 129mm of rain in a few hours, and Galle Road, Borella, Maradana and Armour Street all went under. Several drivers just left their cars in the middle of flooded roads and walked off, while others kept nosing forward through water that was clearly past the wheel arch. The Met Department is already warning of more heavy rain this week for the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central, Uva and North-Western provinces, so Colombo will flood again before the year is out. One camp says gun it through in low gear with the AC off — a few minutes in moving water rarely kills anything if you don't stall. The other camp says that's exactly how people hydrolock an engine or fry the electronics, and insurers aren't always generous once they find out you drove in rather than turning back. So where's your actual cutoff — ankle, knee, bonnet? Has anyone here actually lost an engine or a gearbox to one bad crossing, and what did the repair cost? ගංවතුර පාරක යනකොට ඔයා කොහොමද තීරණය ගන්නේ — ඉදිරියට යනවද නැත්නම් ආයෙත් හැරෙනවද?