As posted on the Mopar Collector Guide's website:
The legendary Russo and Steele auction in Scottsdale, Arizona suffered
an unprecedented catastrophe at just after 6:00 pm, January 22.
Violent storms have been wreaking havoc at both Barrett-Jackson and
Russo and Steele this year, with torrential rain and extremely fierce
winds. The storms got the better of Russo and Steele Thursday night
and chaos reigns at the moment.
With somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people inside the gates and
the auction underway, rain and straight line winds in excess of fifty
mph struck the sight, tearing apart two of the approximately 800 foot
long exhibition tents that the collector cars are kept in prior to,
and after, going across the auction block. The largest of the
exhibition tents tore, then collapsed, across hundreds of valuable
collector cars, followed by a second huge tent covering hundreds more
cars. One of the tents actually ripped in two and most of it flew over
a hundred feet away and landed on a nearby freeway, blocking traffic
well into Friday morning. Meanwhile, hundreds of magnificent cars sat
exposed to the raging storm, almost all of them with their windows
down, and just about every convertible on site had its top down as
well.
Due to the ferocity of the storm and flying debris, Scottsdale and
Phoenix police evacuated the crowd right away, uncertain the main
auction tent could withstand the storm. Thankfully, no injuries have
been reported. As of this writing, the whole Russo and Steele complex
is still under lock down by the police and fire departments, and car
owners have not been allowed onto the grounds to assess the damage to
their cars or even cover their cars in some way. Whether or not the
auction will continue this year is still in doubt, as Russo and Steele
themselves cannot allow people back in the compound until all the
damage is cleared. It is unlikely the sale will continue this week.
Over the next few days the extent of the damage to the cars at Russo
will be worked out, but what will be done about this is likely to be a
long-term dilemma. To our knowledge, nothing like this has ever
occurred at any major collector car auction, let alone the second
largest car auction in the world. If you've been watching
Barrett-Jackson on television, you might be wondering where all the
Mopars are (and all the high dollar cars for that matter). Well,
they're over at Russo and Steele in huge numbers, with their owners
opting for that venue's rules of not allowing owner buy backs and
allowing owners to place reserves on their cars. As such, a very large
number of high-end Mopars are at Russo and Steele, including a
significant number of Hemi cars, Max Wedges, Superbirds, E-body
convertibles, and at least two factory '68 Hemi Super Stockers. Right
now, we’re all waiting to see how many suffered damage, and to what
extent. We'll keep you posted.
http://www.azfamily.com/video/featured-videos/Russo-Steel-car-owners-still-not-allowed-in-to-assess-storm-damage-82364787.html
http://www.azfamily.com/home/related/Clean-up-at-Russo-Steele-expected-to-begin-later-this-morning-82360617.html
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