Hurricane Harvey: cars flooded by thousands

AFP

Frédéric Mercier

Wednesday, 30 August, 2017 11:56

UPDATE
Wednesday, 30 August, 2017 11:56

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Hurricane Harvey continues to wreak havoc in Texas, and the number of flooded vehicles are now by the thousands.

According to an article recently published by CNBC, experts predict that 500 000 cars, SUVS and light trucks will have to be miss dead due to water damage caused by the hurricane.

It is even worse than what had been identified in 2012 after hurricane Sandy, which had ravaged a part of the New York city area. Even if the area surrounding New York city is more densely populated than Houston, where Harvey is concentrated, it was explained that the ratio of vehicles per person is considerably higher in Texas.

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Station dealers of cars flooded

The vast majority of vehicles inundated by floods in Houston will be declared total losses and will take the path of the pound. However, we must also expect that some resellers take advantage of the situation to repair some of the vehicles in order to resell them in other States, or even in Canada.

“It’s going to happen, it is inevitable. […] There are people that will try to take advantage of the situation,” says Frank Scafidi of the National Insurance Crime Bureau at CNBC.

The resale of flooded vehicles delivered in the operating state is not illegal in the United States, provided that their history is clear to the new buyer. However, a lot of resellers are trying rather to conceal the past of the vehicle in order to obtain a better selling price.