Ian May Have Destroyed More Than 300K Vehicles

Final numbers won’t be available for months, but one thing is certain: An overwhelming number of drivers in Hurricane Ian’s path will be replacing a vehicle at a time when inventories are already tight.

"We’re anticipating more than 300,000 destroyed vehicles from Hurricane Ian,’ says Mark Friedlander, Florida-based director of corporate communications for the Insurance Information Institute, citing early damage reports from Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Ian crashed ashore to flood, smash and carry away countless vehicles.

While picking up other pieces of their lives, hurricane victims are left trying to find rental cars, filing auto insurance claims (if they had comprehensive coverage) and starting the search for replacement vehicles.

Friedlander says based on estimates, Ian could be the second-largest vehicle loss event on record in the U.S. That would place it behind only Hurricane Harvey in 2017, when 500,000 vehicles were destroyed.