Asbury, CarMax shutter car dealerships as Hurricane Ian grows into Category 4 storm

Dealership groups scrambled to close many of their Florida locations Tuesday as Hurricane Ian bore down on the Gulf Coast, threatening much of the state with high winds, flooding, tornadoes and widespread property damage.

The storm has strengthened since then from a Category 3 hurricane to a Category 4 threat, the National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center announced at 5 a.m. Wednesday.

As of 6 a.m., Ian stood about 55 miles southwest of Naples, Fla., and was moving northeast at 10 mph. It produced sustained winds reaching speeds of 140 mph, and the agency described Southwest Florida conditions as “rapidly deteriorating.”

As of 5 a.m., a hurricane warning was in effect on the Florida mainland from the Anclote River area to Chokoloskee, Fla., a region that includes the Tampa Bay and Fort Meyers areas, according to the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center.

Florida’s Gulf Coast from the Suwanee River at the Panhandle all the way to Flamingo, Fla., in the south carried a storm surge warning, signifying a risk of life-threatening surges, as did the northeastern part of the state from the Georgia border to south of Palm Coast, Fla., according to the agency. Widespread catastrophic flooding was expected in Central Florida, and tornadoes were possible Wednesday in Central and South Florida.

Parts of Florida were under mandatory evacuation orders Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

Asbury Automotive Group Inc. had closed some of its 24 Florida stores Tuesday and planned to close the rest Wednesday.

The group had first closed or planned to close 12 locations in Tampa, Brandon, Orlando and Deland by 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Early Tuesday evening, spokeswoman Morgan Irwin said Asbury had decided to close a St. Augustine, Fla., location that night and seven more in Jacksonville, Fla., by noon Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, she said the company’s remaining four dealerships in Florida would close by noon Wednesday as well.

"The safety of our team members is our top priority,” Irwin wrote Tuesday night.

Nine of CarMax's 24 Florida stores had closed as of Tuesday afternoon.

"At CarMax, we put people first, and that means the safety of our associates and our customers is our top priority," Terry Glass, CarMax regional vice president and general manager of the CarMax Fort Lauderdale, Fla., area, said in a statement. "We have closed nine stores on Florida's West Coast and in Central Florida so our associates can have time to take necessary precautions. We will continue to monitor the situation and support our associates."

Tom Castriota, owner of Castriota Chevrolet in Hudson, Fla., told Automotive News his dealership was open Tuesday, but employees in evacuation zones did not need to come in, and the service department experienced more than 30 cancelations from customers.

Castriota Chevrolet would close Wednesday and reopen Thursday  unless Hurricane Ian lingered, he said.

The dealership moved its vehicles from along U.S. Highway 19 — which is about a mile from the Gulf Coast — "to the 'high ground' of our property," Castriota wrote in an email. He said the dealership also moved "anything not nailed down" inside and was unplugging computers and placing them on desks.

“We've been here 32 years," Castriota said over the phone.  "So I mean, fortunately, we had maybe one major storm that came and did some minor damage, but when you have storms that come up, you're always prepared whether it hits or not. So yes, we have a standard plan and everybody reacts to it.”

Ed Morse Automotive Group CEO Teddy Morse said the company's Tampa-area locations Ed Morse Cadillac Tampa and Ed Morse Mitsubishi closed Tuesday so employees could get home, and would be closed Wednesday. Thursday would be played by ear, he said.

Morse said staffers remove debris from lots and move as much inventory inside as possible, starting with the most expensive vehicles, ahead of a storm.

“It's not as much of an issue as in years past because obviously we don't have as much inventory as we used to,” he said. Other preparation includes unplugging computers and wrapping monitors near windows in garbage bags, he said.

Ed Morse Automotive Group has generator trailers on Florida’s Gulf and Atlantic Coasts, Morse said. If necessary, it will bring the Atlantic Coast generator west so each Tampa store can have one, he said.

The dealership group didn't have this luxury with a hurricane more than a dozen years ago, he said.

“We were without power at a number of our dealerships for about a week and at that time, back in ‘05, we didn’t have the big generators to run … so we were just closed," he said.

The challenge after a storm lay in balancing taking care of one's employees but also customers, Morse said.

"You're going to have customers who have flood damage in their cars, who are going to need estimates on their cars ," he said. “Some people might need to replace the vehicle, you know, so you know, that's just a balancing act. No big deal. We figure it out.”
 

Florida Automobile Dealers Association President Ted Smith said his organization had sent out guidance for dealerships on managing the storm.

One important consideration: Have a generator to reopen the facility. "People don't think about that kind of thing," he said. Unlike consumer generators, which might sell out at hardware stores ahead of a natural disaster, the kind of generator large enough to get a dealership operational might still be available and accessible from equipment rental companies, he said. Insurers sometimes can help with mobile units as well, he said.

Smith has put out a request to members for volunteers willing to share their locations as staging areas for relief efforts, such as food or water distribution sites.

"A lot of my dealers did that voluntarily during [Hurricane] Michael," Smith said, calling it "really neat to see." FADA also sought to connect with state officials to coordinate such efforts, he said.

Smith said FADA for years has offered a charitable fund meant to aid dealership employees after a hurricane. Dealerships can disseminate money from the fund to the staff with the greatest need.

He added: "It's really been a nice program over the years."

Helping employees also helps dealerships address the challenge of getting staff to return after a storm, he said.

C.J. Moore contributed to this report.