1999 Kia Sportage Crank No Start

Hello,
My sister has a 1999 Kia Sportage with a 2.0 liter engine. It is the four door version with the hard top and has around 190,000 miles on it. The starter went bad on it, and our attempts to get it started to move it home (tapping the starter and such) failed. It sat there for a week or two before we were able to change it. This is where it gets interesting. Our area was hit with heavy storms that caused the river to flood. Parts of our town were flooded and some neighboring communities were devastated. The Kia was in a parking lot what ordinarily would have been a safe from water, but with all the heavy rain and flooding it was partially submerged in water. When I say partially submerged, it was sitting on a slight downward slope at the end of the parking lot with the nose pointing down hill. The front had water maybe to the top of the upper control arms. It was high enough to get water in the cabin and floor boards especially the front, and it was high enough at the back to get water in the tail pipe.

It didn’t sit to long because someone my sister knows works where it was parked and called to tell her what was happening. My dad a some good Samaritans with a pick-up truck pulled the Kia to safety at the higher end of the lot. That was on a Thursday, and we changed the starter the following Sunday. It was a laborious job, at least for us, but we finally got it on there. We put everything back together and hit the starter. It turned right over, but wouldn’t start. We could smell gas, so my brother in law removed the necessary parts to check for spark. Holding the boot to different places on the motor, we checked to see if we were getting spark. There was no arcing or sparking, so he thought it could be the crank position sensor (I think that is what he called it). I would have searched it out more before buying a part, but a family member came forward with a part and several people that they talked to thought that was the problem also. I would have come to the forum but we moved that week also and our internet was not yet hooked up. Long story short, we put the sensor on today, and it still will not start.

I feel like the original problem was just the starter (because it wouldn’t crank initially and now it turns over fine, and that the issue now was most likely created with the water. I like working on cars but am nothing near a mechanic. We just try to work on our own vehicles as much as we can to help save money, so if anyone has any advice or suggestions it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you