Such a sad thing for everyone and everything involved. As car people, I think we can feel the pain even more for those who have cars like this one destroyed. But they can be rebuilt or get another one. Lives can’t.
As one who has survived no less than five major hurricanes, I can’t adequately describe how it feels to spend several hours listening to the haunting sound of 100+ mph winds, and worrying if your nearby family and your neighbors are okay once you lose power and phone service.
As for my cars, I’m extremely fortunate to have never lost one in a hurricane or a tornado – but even if I do, that’s the reason I have insurance. As well as a storm shelter, to protect the things that can’t be replaced.
Yeah I saw that earlier, it’ll probably be saved like it probably was before, you’d be lucky to find a husk of a regular roadrunner in a field without shelling out $20k with nothing salvageable but the VIN. I’m quite impressed at the strength of the wing, it buckled the quarter panels before giving itself, it may well have saved the roof structure from severe damage.
But aside from that what a nasty storm, as Dan said the lives aren’t so salvageable.
I read somewhere that these wings provided 600 lbs downforce at speed. I don’t know what safety factor would have been designed in, but 2x or 3x was not uncommon in those pre-computer aided analysis days, so it could be quite sturdy, along with the roof which in this case is sharing some of the load.
True enough. But can’t help but I wonder how having to restore the car a second time will affect its value? Hopefully all of the property damage is covered by insurance, although insurance never makes you fully whole again. Between your deductibles and the insurance companies trying to minimize their losses by lowballing everyone’s payouts, plus the inevitable fight after the initial “offer” to get back what the damage really costs to repair, and you’re always going to be suffering some form of loss, in time, money, or most likely both. The big thing is that everyone is safe and healthy enough to get through to the other side of this disaster.
Not making this a political thing at all. Just looking at this storm and the greater severity of all weather related things in general, I just can’t understand how anyone can still deny climate change.
A few years ago, in the depths of an awful wildfire season (the sun at high noon was beerbottle brown and safe to look at directly; it was difficult to breathe and everyone sounded like a 4-pack-a-day smoker because effectively we all were, and it was hard to read the house number of the house across the street, etc) I was waiting to pay at a corner grocery. Those of us in line were commiserating about the state of things and I sarcastically said “just think how much worse it would be if climate change were a real thing, eh!”. Other linestanders chuckled wryly. The cashier interrupted his work to say “Welllllll, whether or not you believe in “climate change” (he said it in a scornful tone and made big, exaggerated airquotes), the summers are definitely getting hotter and hotter, and the wildfires have gotten way worse than they used to be, year after year”. We linestanders kind of looked at him and at one other, like, is this guy for real…? Nobody said anything out loud, but in my head it went Oh, hi, there, Mr. Cashier. I guess that Escort wagon out front with the bumper sticker on, saying ‘THE EARTH IS COOLING, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH’, must be yours. Allow me to introduce you to what you just said; I don’t think you two have met.
Mr. Cashier sounds like he has his own model of logic, much like my partner’s mother.
She readily acknowledges that storms and wildfires are far worse than they once were, yet she doesn’t believe in climate change. I’ll spare you her political and religious views on what she thinks is the cause, because like Dan B, I don’t want to go down that path.
How sad. What a nightmare of a storm.
I’m on a Facebook group where one of the member’s 1978 Thunderbird Diamond Jubilee was hit by a tree. Not of the same caliber of cars as this Super Bee but sad just the same.
That might actually be worse than the Superbird. The Plymouth will certainly be repaired and mostly covered if insurance is decent, because its value is so high and most all the parts should be readily available. The Thundebird on paper is probably not worth as much as the repair costs, plus much of its value owed to its originality, which can’t be repaired. And finding body/interior and other obscure parts could be very challenging (adding to the cost).
Story is the Superbird was on a hoist along with another car, ostensibly to save them from flood water. Water came in so high it washed the cars off the hoists and out of the garage. The owner was able to save some other cars he owned, and most importantly it appears he is O.K..
We had two declining hurricanes come through piedmont NC in the fall of 2018. One dumped 36″ of rain where my grandparents had a lake cottage east of Fayetteville. The second one blew down a 120+ y.o. pecan tree smack onto my dad’s 2000 LeSabre next door to me. It had huge, spreading branches that folded up like an umbrella on the way down. Of course, I’d cancelled the comprehensive insurance on it a few years before, so he got $75 from the people who hauled it away. His homeowners covered the tree removal plus several thousand for broken roof shingles (on a 30 y.o. roof!)
The weird thing was that there were many trees down all over the region (my tree man couldn’t get to ours until spring), and another old tree fell in the lot behind ours, crushing their garage, but when I went for a walk around the neighborhood, you couldn’t tell there’d been a storm at all. No downed branches, no loose leaves. It was as if one big gust swooped down into the middle of our block and no where else.
I live in an area where there are many pines and oaks (shallow roots), and pretty much the same thing happened in the spring a few years ago. We had a “microburst” which generate a small tornado. It only impacted about a square mile, where there was tremendous destruction – some neighbors lost houses and a dozen or more trees taken out. I had a tree come down on one of my cars, but the main trunk fell about 2′ behind the car, so my car only got its tailgate clobbered and it picked up a few more character dents on the roof. 46 year old Swedish steel…it’s what you want when 30′ things are falling from the sky onto your vehicle.
But to the point here, stuff’s replaceable. People aren’t. And yeah, I expect to see a lot more of this kind of weird weather stuff for the rest of my life. Unfortunately.
According to my sister who lives closer to where the storm swept through (Sebring) her house suffered some shingle damage and she lost cell service for a few hours. She didn’t mention anything about losing power, either they didn’t lose it or their Generac kicked in almost immediately.
Where I live in north Florida, I had heavy rain for a few hours and lighter rain for a day and a half, along with strong winds. Lost power for nearly 2 hours thursday night. Lots of downed branches, but no trees. We were lucky. Though areas around me flooded.
When I left my house on Tuesday, I said goodbye to my motorcycle collection. Painful.
I live in Clearwater about 75 yds off the Gulf. Dodged the bullet this time. Not sure about the future. Great view though.
My damage is lost food in the fridge and a turned over trash can.
Have chainsaw will travel tomorrow. So many lost so much!
Sent to me by Robert Walter
Such a sad thing for everyone and everything involved. As car people, I think we can feel the pain even more for those who have cars like this one destroyed. But they can be rebuilt or get another one. Lives can’t.
Well put, especially the last two sentences.
As one who has survived no less than five major hurricanes, I can’t adequately describe how it feels to spend several hours listening to the haunting sound of 100+ mph winds, and worrying if your nearby family and your neighbors are okay once you lose power and phone service.
As for my cars, I’m extremely fortunate to have never lost one in a hurricane or a tornado – but even if I do, that’s the reason I have insurance. As well as a storm shelter, to protect the things that can’t be replaced.
Yeah I saw that earlier, it’ll probably be saved like it probably was before, you’d be lucky to find a husk of a regular roadrunner in a field without shelling out $20k with nothing salvageable but the VIN. I’m quite impressed at the strength of the wing, it buckled the quarter panels before giving itself, it may well have saved the roof structure from severe damage.
But aside from that what a nasty storm, as Dan said the lives aren’t so salvageable.
I read somewhere that these wings provided 600 lbs downforce at speed. I don’t know what safety factor would have been designed in, but 2x or 3x was not uncommon in those pre-computer aided analysis days, so it could be quite sturdy, along with the roof which in this case is sharing some of the load.
True enough. But can’t help but I wonder how having to restore the car a second time will affect its value? Hopefully all of the property damage is covered by insurance, although insurance never makes you fully whole again. Between your deductibles and the insurance companies trying to minimize their losses by lowballing everyone’s payouts, plus the inevitable fight after the initial “offer” to get back what the damage really costs to repair, and you’re always going to be suffering some form of loss, in time, money, or most likely both. The big thing is that everyone is safe and healthy enough to get through to the other side of this disaster.
Been watching the news all afternoon. What a stunning storm this turned out to be.
Not making this a political thing at all. Just looking at this storm and the greater severity of all weather related things in general, I just can’t understand how anyone can still deny climate change.
A few years ago, in the depths of an awful wildfire season (the sun at high noon was beerbottle brown and safe to look at directly; it was difficult to breathe and everyone sounded like a 4-pack-a-day smoker because effectively we all were, and it was hard to read the house number of the house across the street, etc) I was waiting to pay at a corner grocery. Those of us in line were commiserating about the state of things and I sarcastically said “just think how much worse it would be if climate change were a real thing, eh!”. Other linestanders chuckled wryly. The cashier interrupted his work to say “Welllllll, whether or not you believe in “climate change” (he said it in a scornful tone and made big, exaggerated airquotes), the summers are definitely getting hotter and hotter, and the wildfires have gotten way worse than they used to be, year after year”. We linestanders kind of looked at him and at one other, like, is this guy for real…? Nobody said anything out loud, but in my head it went Oh, hi, there, Mr. Cashier. I guess that Escort wagon out front with the bumper sticker on, saying ‘THE EARTH IS COOLING, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH’, must be yours. Allow me to introduce you to what you just said; I don’t think you two have met.
Mr. Cashier sounds like he has his own model of logic, much like my partner’s mother.
She readily acknowledges that storms and wildfires are far worse than they once were, yet she doesn’t believe in climate change. I’ll spare you her political and religious views on what she thinks is the cause, because like Dan B, I don’t want to go down that path.
How sad. What a nightmare of a storm.
I’m on a Facebook group where one of the member’s 1978 Thunderbird Diamond Jubilee was hit by a tree. Not of the same caliber of cars as this Super Bee but sad just the same.
That might actually be worse than the Superbird. The Plymouth will certainly be repaired and mostly covered if insurance is decent, because its value is so high and most all the parts should be readily available. The Thundebird on paper is probably not worth as much as the repair costs, plus much of its value owed to its originality, which can’t be repaired. And finding body/interior and other obscure parts could be very challenging (adding to the cost).
Painful – reminds me of this
Where was that?
Story is the Superbird was on a hoist along with another car, ostensibly to save them from flood water. Water came in so high it washed the cars off the hoists and out of the garage. The owner was able to save some other cars he owned, and most importantly it appears he is O.K..
We had two declining hurricanes come through piedmont NC in the fall of 2018. One dumped 36″ of rain where my grandparents had a lake cottage east of Fayetteville. The second one blew down a 120+ y.o. pecan tree smack onto my dad’s 2000 LeSabre next door to me. It had huge, spreading branches that folded up like an umbrella on the way down. Of course, I’d cancelled the comprehensive insurance on it a few years before, so he got $75 from the people who hauled it away. His homeowners covered the tree removal plus several thousand for broken roof shingles (on a 30 y.o. roof!)
The weird thing was that there were many trees down all over the region (my tree man couldn’t get to ours until spring), and another old tree fell in the lot behind ours, crushing their garage, but when I went for a walk around the neighborhood, you couldn’t tell there’d been a storm at all. No downed branches, no loose leaves. It was as if one big gust swooped down into the middle of our block and no where else.
I live in an area where there are many pines and oaks (shallow roots), and pretty much the same thing happened in the spring a few years ago. We had a “microburst” which generate a small tornado. It only impacted about a square mile, where there was tremendous destruction – some neighbors lost houses and a dozen or more trees taken out. I had a tree come down on one of my cars, but the main trunk fell about 2′ behind the car, so my car only got its tailgate clobbered and it picked up a few more character dents on the roof. 46 year old Swedish steel…it’s what you want when 30′ things are falling from the sky onto your vehicle.
But to the point here, stuff’s replaceable. People aren’t. And yeah, I expect to see a lot more of this kind of weird weather stuff for the rest of my life. Unfortunately.
According to my sister who lives closer to where the storm swept through (Sebring) her house suffered some shingle damage and she lost cell service for a few hours. She didn’t mention anything about losing power, either they didn’t lose it or their Generac kicked in almost immediately.
Where I live in north Florida, I had heavy rain for a few hours and lighter rain for a day and a half, along with strong winds. Lost power for nearly 2 hours thursday night. Lots of downed branches, but no trees. We were lucky. Though areas around me flooded.
When I left my house on Tuesday, I said goodbye to my motorcycle collection. Painful.
I live in Clearwater about 75 yds off the Gulf. Dodged the bullet this time. Not sure about the future. Great view though.
My damage is lost food in the fridge and a turned over trash can.
Have chainsaw will travel tomorrow. So many lost so much!