Sonic's Dyke drives to Houston with aid

In Tuesday's early morning hours, Sonic Automotive Inc.'s Jeff Dyke drove purposefully from San Antonio to Dallas. He had resolved to fill two of his own pickups with supplies, food and clothing -- and keep driving.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to work my way in there," said Dyke, Sonic's executive vice president of operations.

"There" is Houston, the rain-ravaged city left flooded and mangled by Harvey, now a tropical storm.

"I'm from there and I know a lot of the back roads," said Dyke. He was born in Houston and lived there until 2005, when he moved to Sonic's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.

"I've got trucks and supplies and I'll do whatever I can for the people on the ground there," Dyke said.

Sonic Automotive ranks No. 5 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., with retail sales of 134,288 new vehicles in 2016.

Nineteen of Sonic's dealerships, which employ 1,500 to 2,000 people, stood in Harvey's path. The stores account for nearly a third of Sonic's profits, Dyke said. He admits that the loss of sales and service business at the stores, which have been closed since 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, will be "devastating." And he is unclear of the cost to repair damages and replace or repair inventory.

But that will be determined later. For now, his goal is to reach Sonic's employees, which requires finding a route into a city where many of the main roads are under water.

"We've certainly had our fair share of personnel who've lost their homes," Dyke said. "Our company will stand by them and take care of them. It's a very difficult situation."

As of late Monday, Sonic had counted "about a dozen" employees who had lost their homes in the storm, he said. "We know it's more, but we don't have a firm count yet."

Sonic is paying employees while the stores remain shuttered, Dyke said. But the employees' needs extend beyond cash.

"They need clothes, food -- we'll bring some Walmart cards so that they can go shopping -- tools, generators," Dyke said. "I have two of my personal trucks to use and I can pull more from our dealerships' used lots to take down there. I'm going to lead the charge to get into Houston."

Dyke's visit to Texas did not start out so brazen. He had arrived in San Antonio before Harvey hit to help with hiring for two of Sonic's new EchoPark used-only stores, he said. Dyke had planned to go to Dallas afterward to research other sites for "a couple more" EchoPark stores. Then the storm hit.

Neither Dyke nor his team knows the full extent of damage to the group's dealerships. They are relying on camera footage to size up the situation. Three of Sonic's stores were hit "pretty hard" and have water in the showroom, he said.

He hopes to open some service departments this week, assuming customers can even get to the dealerships.

"Ninety percent of the thruways are closed," Dyke said. "It's getting to the stores that's the problem."

Since Saturday, Dyke and the leaders of the 19 stores have had two calls a day: one in the morning and one in the early evening to share updates on personnel, try to assess store damage and share other news, he said.

They have a "go, no go" call at 7 p.m. to determine if any of the stores will open for business the next day. On that call are Sonic managers, 10 members of Sonic's risk management team and two meteorologists from the National Weather Service, Dyke said.

"They advise us as to what is going to happen with the weather" and any additional flooding, Dyke said. The risk management team advises store leaders on handling potential dangers.

"You can imagine there might be loose wires and water on the floor and currents flowing through that, day-to-day things your general manager might not think about that the risk management team is looking at," Dyke said.

As the end-of-the-month sales period approaches, Dyke is realistic about the impact this storm will have on Sonic's near-term finances.

"It's devastating, obviously," Dyke said. "You missed a Friday, and Saturday's our biggest day. You missed Monday and Tuesday and it's the end-of-the-month type sales. That's our biggest market. It's got a lot of heavy high-line brands like BMW and Jaguar Land Rover."

The silver lining is Dyke's belief in his hometown.

"The city of Houston is one of the most resilient cities on the planet. Only 300,000 customers were out of power at any given time during this event so far and that's amazing considering this is the fourth-largest city in the U.S.," he said. "For them to be so prepared is amazing."

Sonic is prepared, too.

"We'll help the city get back on its feet and we'll sell and service cars when it's all over with," said Dyke. "It's going to be a tough bit here, but we're a resilient company and we'll get through it."