SCOTTSDALE & TORNADO WARNINGS
We flew to Scottsdale on Thursday. It wasn't too bad coming in, just a little bumpy, but there was a down pour of continuous rain once we were on the ground. Our friend, Art Swanson, was driving over from the Palm Springs area to go with me to the car auctions this weekend. When he arrived, he looked like someone who had faced death and survived. Highway 10 from California, he said, was just plain awful. He went through high winds that moved his car (and blew over several semi trucks) continuous rain and water on the highway. He was exhausted.
That night on the news there was a tornado warning for Scottsdale. It was predicted that it would touch down in the area of the local airport. The rain was continuous all night with high gusty winds that rattled the house. The next morning we were trying to evaluate whether Art should try to escape back to California, spend the night or go to the auctions. It turned out the tornado did not cause damage, but the rain was continuing. We decided to take a chance and go to the auctions.
The news reported that this was the worst storm to hit this area in seventeen years. The governor declared an emergency. The town of Wenden, about 110 miles West of Phoenix was evacuated due to flooding. winds of eighty miles an hour had occurred during the night in some areas. Flooding and flash flooding warnings were posted. Several interstate highways were simply closed. Power outages were common. Even the main highway, Loop 101, was shut down. The airport was forced to close operations for a time. Semi trucks had blown over and the snow fall in the Flagstaff area set records with three feet of fresh snow. Roads were submerged in the Phoenix and other areas. In nearby Cave Creek, a large house had bank washed out below a part of it as the flood waters roared down a wash and it was teetering on falling into the wash. There were record rain falls everywhere and here in Scottsdale where the average is one inch of rain in January, there was some four inches in a matter of a day or two.
In spite of it all we decided to go to two auctions and call it quits. The two were the Barrett Jackson and the Russo Steele car auctions. Barrett has no reserve on the cars. Whatever is bid is what it sells for, but Russo has reserves on all the cars so if the bid does not exceed the minimum price placed on the car by the owner it is not sold. As a result, Russo usually has the most expensive classic cars.
The tent structure for Barrett Jackson is the largest tent in the world and is probably visible from space. It's between 1/4 and 1/3 mile long and about 100 feet wide. Aluminum trusses hold it all up with huge supporting structures and a very high ceiling. Outside are vendor and staging tent areas over a huge area. The auction lasts five days and some 1000 cars are expected to be sold. Inside the main tent is a gaudy Las Vegas like atmosphere with all kinds of vendors selling everything and in some cases things
not even related to cars. Large neon automobile signs are lit and displayed. People are walking everywhere. We walked the entire length and then turned and walked back on the other side. I've never seen so many things I never want to own. There were a very large number of Chevrolet's for sale and not many classic cars. The few cars we saw auctioned went for between twenty and thirty thousand. Car owners lost money on those sales.
After that we headed for Russo Steele where I was looking forward to seeing the really expensive classic cars. On the way we stopped to see a Bugatti parked next to a Lamborghini automobile. The Bugatti price was $1.5 million and had 1000 horsepower engine. Not good for driving around Gig Harbor.
When we got to Russo Steele the road was blocked and there were police who turned us away. It turned out that the night before the high winds had brought down the tent over all the expensive cars and the supporting poles, as big as telephone poles, had fallen across the cars. About 6:15 that night the winds picked up and the tent began moving. The auction owners ordered everyone out and owners stood in the rain watching the tent flap and then fall. Some owners had tried to get their cars out but had to run when one end of the tent lifted up, allowing the tent poles to fall down on cars. The shredded tent began flapping around in the wind causing more damage. Many of the convertibles had their tops down so they filled with water. There was extensive damage to the cars estimated to exceed $1.5 million. One of the classic cars to be auctioned was a Tucker convertible that had drawn a lot of publicity. It was under a tent that was destroyed, but sustained only minor damage to one fender.
After we got back to the house, Art wisely decided to get out of Dodge as quickly as he could and headed home. He reported arriving safely in much better conditions then the way over.
So that is my report from sunny Scottsdale, Arizona.
0 thoughts on “SCOTTSDALE & TORNADO WARNINGS”
Obama in my opinion should let deocracy work, the way our founding fathers planned it out. Let the Republicans filibuster, when you decide to let them on a particular bill that bill will go down in defeat. I would take a new stimulus bill, around 500 billion dollars, and have it specifically address construction needs in certain states, Ohio, Ind. Ill. Penn. Cal, Virginia, W. Virginia. This bill would be designed like a WPA bill in the 30’s, hire private businesses, to improve our road system, bridges, etc., designate what each state will get, set guide lines on how many new hires, amount paid, etc., may do it on a joint venture, private business and government. In any case let the republicans bring in the cots, filibuster, do nothing and see what happens. In the mean time send out the best speakers in colleges, cities, and point out what is taking place. I believe college students would demostrate and get the ball rolling. Give them HELL. CB
I agree, the good for nothing, do nothing Republicans are nothing but roadblocks to progress. The GOP stands for Gridlocks Of Progress. The party of No has got to go. Give ’em hell Barry. Or how about, Give ’em hell Baracky, Rocky for short. Go Rocky.