Tallying the Damage: Hurricane Sandy Hit Car Collectors Hard

Guys come in and they’re in tears. They didn’t expect a storm surge to wipe out their work, their investment, their prized family heirloom.

Among other things, the affluent in our country like to collect cars, and they like to live on the coast. Normally, this combination isn’t a problem, but when hurricane Sandy hit at the end of October, it turned out to be a perfect storm of conditions to wreck a lot of classic cars. Property Casualty 360, an insurance underwriter website, reports that a month later, owners are running a losing race against salt water corrosion that is turning irreplaceable original cars and parts to rust.

In that article, Kevin J. Mackay, owner of Corvette Repair Inc. in Valley Stream, New York on Long Island is quoted as saying, “Guys come in and they’re in tears. They didn’t expect a storm surge to wipe out their work, their investment, their prized family heirloom.” Mackay himself says that 15 Corvettes in his shop were damaged in the storm.

Hagerty Insurance Agency, a supplier of classic and collector car insurance, has written off cars in more than a thousand Sandy-related claims, and the company estimates that the total number of cars taken off the road forever will be in the 8-10,000 range. Despite many owners taking precautions like raising cars on jack stands or lifts, the storm surge exceeded anyone’s expectations, and even cars that managed to avoid immersion were vulnerable to falling trees and even collapsing buildings.

For an in-depth look at how Sandy affected car aficionados throughout the Eastern seaboard, continue on to the Property Casualty 360 article.