Phil Ingrassia, president of the RV Dealers Association, told RV PRO that dealerships in North Carolina suffered some damage, but “nothing major” in the face of Hurricane Florence.
Downgraded from a category 4 to a category 3 hurricane before slamming into the East Coast, the storm reached windspeeds of 140 mph and poured 10 trillion gallons of rainfall. However, dealerships that have reported to the RVDA thus far haven’t experienced a significant impact just yet.
“Overall, dealers took precaution, like we talked about before,” said Ingrassia. “Making sure their inventory was secure, moving it to higher ground if they had to. Securing important insurance documents and computers. And taking precaution to make sure employees were staying home and safe, especially in those evacuation areas.”
Rex & Sons RV located in Wilmington, N.C. – an area that felt 85-mph winds on Friday, Sept. 14 – reported some water damage, as well as a tree that went through the dealership’s back door.
Bill Plemmons RV World in Raleigh and Rural Hall, N.C., reported in to Ingrassia, saying that both their dealerships were fine. Shawna Plemmons, vice president of the dealership, said: “We got lucky. The only thing we had was a lot of rain and some minor winds.”
There may be other dealers who saw more damage, said Ingrassia, but reports RVDA has received thus far are positive. “Dealerships were situated in areas that didn’t seem to have the deep impact that we saw on the news,” he said. “Obviously it did close some dealerships over that weekend, including some Camping World stores.”
What comes next, though, are potential scammers. During Hurricane Harvey and Irma, last year, Black Book estimated that “approximately 700,000 cars and trucks were damaged or destroyed,” the company stated.
With at least 2 feet of flooding from Florence, RVers can expect water to get into the engine, over the axles and brakes, any generators that may be positioned just so. Those without insurance may try to sell their damaged unit.
“There’s a reason so many flooded cars that look fine are declared total losses by their insurance companies,” said Eric Lawrence, director of specialty markets at Black Book. “To fix all the electrical components on a modern-day car or RV might just be far more than the salvage value of the vehicle.”
Any internal corrosion would be hard to notice; therefore, some people may be returning damaged ideas unintentionally.
“A motorhome is just a big car with the same system,” said Lawrence, “so anytime you get a lot of water damage on one of those, you could potentially have a really bad problem down the road – maybe even more so with all its complex systems.”
Black Book doesn’t yet have estimates on what Hurricane Florence will mean for used RVs, but it is warning dealers and RV buyers to be careful and have a professional examine units before any transactions.
