MILWAUKEE -- Air bags were designed to save lives, not put them in danger. So imagine driving on a freeway or crowded city street and your air bag deploys unexpectedly.

Milwaukee television station WISN reported that this nightmare came true for two Wisconsin residents, and it may happen to others.

When Fond du Lac, Wis., was drenched in heavy rain last month, Lynda Schultz's 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier became trapped in a heavily flooded parking lot.

"I'm sure the floorboards were soaked because the floodwaters rose," Schultz said.

Weeks earlier, heavy rains had leaked into Tom Kleist's 1996 Pontiac Grand Am.

"I just went in my car and the floor had water all over it," Kleist said.

Both drivers eventually dried out their cars and hit the road, only to be stunned by what was about to happen.

"I got home, pulled into my driveway, put it in park and the air bag deployed in my face," Schultz said.

Kleist, not coincidentally, experienced a very similar situation.

"About five minutes after I got off the freeway, the air bag just blew up right in my face," Kleist said.

Both airbags deployed without any warning, stunning both drivers.

"It exploded. I didn't know what happened at first," Schultz said. "It felt as if I had been shot. It was so loud and my ears were ringing and there was all of this white stuff in my face."

That night, Schultz struggled to make sense of the situation. The next day, the cause of the air bag explosion became clear when she received a warning letter from General Motors.

"The letter said, 'should your car ever become wet, the floorboards get soaked, don't drive your car, disconnect the battery and have it towed to a Chevrolet dealership,'" Schultz said.

The letter explained to Schultz what Kleist had already discovered.

"We found out the air bag module that controls it is under the passenger seat," Kleist said.

Water in the air bag electronics system below the flood caused the airbags to deploy, but not immediately. It could have happened at any time after the electronics got wet.

But even with the explanation, it remains a difficult situation to understand.

"What reasonable person would think your air bags would deploy because your car got wet three days prior," Schultz said.

A General Motors spokesperson confirmed the air bag problem for certain 1996 and 1997 vehicles. This problem affects the 1996 and 1997 Chevy Cavalier, Pontiac Grand Am, Pontiac Sunfire, Buick Skylark and Oldsmobile Achieva.

According to General Motors, owners have been notified to get the electrical system checked if their vehicle has suffered flood damage.

Still, the letters do little to alleviate concerns for both the drivers of these specific vehicles and other motorists.

"They are absolutely time bombs for all of us, not just the people driving them," Schultz said.

Kleist also shares this concern.

"It could've been a whole lot worse if it happened on the freeway with all the other cars around," Kleist said.

The heavy rains that the Midwest experienced in June may just be the fuse to light these ticking time-bombs.

"There has been major flooding here," Schultz said. "All of these cars could be affected and they're just driving around not knowing it. They're taking their lives into their hands and they don't even know it."

The recent flooding may have triggered the warning letters from General Motors, but WISN reported that the problem dates back more than a decade.

Both General Motors and the federal government investigated complaints about spontaneous air bag deployment caused by moisture as early as 1997.

The National Transportation Safety Board closed its investigation after several months when General Motors redesigned its air bag system to correct the problem. No recall was ever issued.

General Motors agreed to buy the cars back from Schultz and Kleist, but it is unknown how many similar cars are on the roads. However, the company did send out 1 million letters.