Hurricane Ian's storm surge happened at precisely high tide here in Naples FL. We bugged out the morning of the storm in our trusty Highlander leaving the '09 GT and my wife's MBZ in the garage. Shouldn't have done that. This is what greeted us when we got home. Next time we'll take our new cars to the 3d floor of a parking garage. We had 27" of seawater in our garage - right to the top of the grill. When the electrical system shorted out the suspension collapsed making it look like a low rider. Insurance company totaled both and towed them away 8 days later. Since it was stuck in park, they had to drag it out of the garage! By that time they stunk and the interior was covered in mold. I found a newer one ('16) with the same number of miles (27K) at the Jaguar dealer in Sarasota (about 90 minutes north) and took delivery a few days ago. Wife got a new Macan so she's happy too.


Here's the pics - old & new:





Here's the '16 I bought:

 

That is very sad! I hate to see good cars die.

We just purchased a Fla property TWO WEEKS before Ian was even a thing. We’re still happy with the decision but there were moments we questioned our luck.

Love the color of the new one.

 

Thanks & welcome to Florida! Hope your new place was spared.

 

Sorry to see that. All of us with places in South Florida will always be at risk for these kinds of events. Glad to see you were able to replace your cars so quickly, especially considering the low inventory of new and used vehicles everywhere.

looks like you have alot of tools to cleanup and / or replace in the garage, how did your home fare in all of this?

 

Our home did mostly OK otherwise. Only a little bit of water came into the LR under the sliding doors and was mostly absorbed by an area rug which is out for cleaning now. The marble floor is being polished and the new drywall in the garage is being painted as I write this. The pool looks like a swamp and needs to be drained, acid washed and refilled and a new pump & heater installed - I'm on the list. We lost the garage & lanai fridges, a water heater and had to throw out pretty much whatever was below the high water line. It's only stuff, right? Our AC units and generator are elevated and never missed a beat but we burned through $1300 of propane in 5 days. Just got internet back yesterday.

As for the cars, I figured that we'd better jump on those right away as they'd be going fast. My wife got the last Macan at the Porsche dealer. People were just walking in, pointing to a car and saying "I'll take that one!" When we picked up the car the next day they had nothing left. I looked at another Bentley that same morning, a '16 convertible that was OK but I prefer a coupe. I had to go home to meet a contractor and offered a deposit to hold it till 4pm. No dice unless it was 5K non-refundable! It sold 20 minutes before I got back there at 4. Glad it did. I did a search for '2016 Bentley for sale' and landed on CarGurus.com and immediately found my new one at a dealer in Sarasota. It checked all the boxes, a coupe - preferably green/saddle like the soggy one - and low miles! Newer car and a different shade of green. By 5:30pm we made a deal by phone subject to inspection and they took a refundable deposit. I drove up there the next morning to check it out and completed the purchase. They took care of a couple of cosmetic issues and delivered it to me at my home a few days later. I haven't driven it yet because the streets are still a mess and the SUV is better suited for the road conditions right now.

Bonus! There was a brand new-in-the box Bentley/CTEK charger in the boot. At first I had no idea why it had a round flat disk at the end of the cable till I noticed the charger slot inside the boot lid. Nice that you can just slide it in without opening the boot! Now if I can only get the Homelink programmed!

 

Glad to hear you are getting things worked out and the house was not wrecked - especially considering you had 27" of water in the garage. Was the house that much higher than the garage? or was the garage to house door able to hold back all that water?

Those whole house generators are great, right!. Forget what the propane costs, at least you had AC, and all appliances. We have one at our NY house and have run it for 2 weeks after bad storms. Don't have 1 in FL yet, no natural gas and the propane tanks need to be buried in Jupiter where we are. Can't figure out a spot to do that in small yard with alot of underground power, cable TV, tree roots etc.

We have 2 friends that were impacted by the storm, 1 couple in Port Charlotte and the other in Venice. They were both pretty lucky, the Charlotte couple lost the Lanai, some damage to boat and boat dock, the Venice couple had some roof damage and their small plane was damaged when the hurricane rated hanger door failed and came in on the plane. But all in all, no injuries.

BTW the external battery tender that just snaps on magnetically is pretty cool right? all my other cars I have to lift the hood or trunk and connect.

Good luck with your recovery.

 

Thanks, MrHP. From the garage to the house there are 3 steps up to a landing and another 6" step to the doorway so we had an inch to spare. The genny did it's job and running it is still cheaper than staying in a hotel or dealing with mold from no AC! When we built 8 years ago we dropped a 1000 gallon tank in the front yard. Looked like a submarine. 2 years ago we got natural gas lines put in our street but we haven't converted yet.

Sorry to hear about your friend's plane. So much for the door's hurricane rating! A lot of the bi-fold doors met the same fate here.

That magnetic battery snap is slick. I used to have to open the boot. One improvement would be a warning chime if you start the engine before removing it. I once drove away dragging the extension cord behind the car on the old one. Turns out the people waving weren't just being friendly! Since then I hang an old 'REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT' pitot tube cover on the door handle as a reminder.

 

Remove before flight- HaHa, that is good! I just keep a note above the sun visor and when I attach the cable I put the note on the instrument cluster. My Bentley is not so bad, because the connection is lightly held and will drop off, but my Viper and Corvette have the connection inside the trunk / deck lid and it is a very messy situation if not disconnected before takeoff.

Glad to hear there was enough elevation to keep the house safe that would have been a real mess to deal with. My AC units in Jupiter (3 & 4 ton) are on the ground (6" pad) so I'm thinking if we got your level of water, a generator would not have helped. If I do figure out where to bury a tank, I'm going to need to raise the AC units - neighbors won't like that.

My buddy loves that plane. Still don't know if it can be repaired. Interesting in that the doors were not bifold, but sliding and looked very well attached. From the pics I saw the top of the door came in on the nose of the plane, got the prop and cowl, don't know about engine damage yet.

Mikes Plane & Hanger Pre Ian

 

Most FL building codes now require that AC & gensets be elevated for new construction. Not required for replacements but strongly encouraged. All our neighbors in older homes had to have them replaced. The smarter ones bought racks to elevate them.

 

I wasn't one of the smart ones, installed a complete new HVAC system in 2019 and the units went on the pad where the previous ones were. Although I doubt I would have been able to elevate them anywhere near where they were.

 

New one is awesome.

 

Thanks! Can't wait to take it for a spin once the streets are cleaned up.