After the heavy rains brought by Florence to the Carolinas stopped, estimates about the number of vehicles that were destroyed by the storm began to roll in that made it clear the storm would have far less of an impact than the pair of storms that reached Texas and Florida a year ago.

All told, Florence is expected to cause at least 20,000 vehicles to be damaged or destroyed due to flooding, and as many as 40,000 vehicles, according to estimates from Black Book and Cox Automotive.

“While estimates of any damaged or destroyed vehicles from Hurricane Florence at this time are still preliminary, we believe any estimates will be much milder in comparison to the volume of damage we saw last year in Texas and Florida,” said Anil Goyal, Black Book’s executive vice president of operations. “We will have to continue to monitor the next several days and weeks to see if the damage estimate change. As such, the damage could have an impact in prices rising slightly in the near term in the affected region, especially since affordable used small- and midsize cars were already in high demand before the storm hit.”

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