A Sad Sight: Cars Victimized by Mother Nature as Hurricane Harvey Ripped Through Texas

TopSpeed

By Mark McNabb

Published Sep 9, 2017

An estimated one million vehicles destroyed

News surrounding Hurricane Harvey has been constantly flowing since the Category Three storm poured trillions of gallons of rainwater onto the coast of Texas over several days. Metro Huston and its surrounding areas are among the hardest hit. Among the more than 66 people dead and an estimated 44,000 homes flooded, nearly a million vehicles were lost to flood waters.

Images tell the clearest story, with photos of submerged cars lining once-busy Interstates and the aftermath of muddy water soaking into every nook and void within a car’s interior. Of the photos we’ve seen, the saddest are of antique and performance cars, including a vintage Porsche 911, several Corvettes and Vipers, and even a few late-model Ferraris. Of course, a flooded vehicle is legally required to be listed as such on its title, warning would-be buyers about its time under water. While we’re happy to see vintage and high-dollar vehicles get restored and retitled appropriately, some flood cars will be shadily repaired and sold on the pre-owned market with no indication to the buyer. This is most commonly done with average vehicles like pickups, SUVs, and family cars. The most recent large-scale case of this happening was Hurricane Sandy that hit New York and New Jersey in 2012. Hurricane Harvey will undoubtedly see the same illegal activity in its wake.

Unfortunately, we expect to see similar photos from Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.