Duane Huff and others at the Fred Martin Auto Group thought they got through Wednesday afternoon’s deluge of rainstorms unscathed.
But when Huff, who co-owns the Fred Martin dealership on Barber Road in Barberton with his brother, Adam, returned around 10 p.m., it was a different story. Water was rushing into the dealership’s lots from the north and south.
“It was madcap,” Duane Huff said. “We just started moving cars to higher ground. There was a crew of about 30 of us who worked all night.”
Vehicles were moved around the dealership lot to higher ground, but when morning broke and they assessed the situation, they decided their large inventory was in trouble. Floodwaters on some parts of the lot were 36 inches high or even waist-deep, Huff said.
Around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, vehicles were moved again — this time via the Akron Expressway to the highest ground they could think of with a large, open lot. So off they went to the former Rolling Acres mall on Romig Road in Akron.
About 800 cars were driven by about 150 people, Huff said. Used Hummers became shuttles to get drivers back to Barber Road through the high waters.
It was not the first time. The dealer used the former shopping center lot as a temporary lot during the floods of 2004. Huff recalled that waters submerged part of the showroom and workers had to drive about 900 cars to Rolling Acres.
After 2004, remodeling of the building raised the height of the floor. This week’s storm brought water within 2 inches, Huff said.
“If we hadn’t brought these cars up here, we would have lost them,” Huff said Friday afternoon as the sun shone on the temporary lot of new and used vehicles. Huff said he had been up for 36 hours straight since the storms.
The stress of quickly finding each car’s keys was part of managing the crisis, he said.
“That sounds simple, but you had to make sure you had the right keys to the right cars,” he said.
On Friday, sales people roamed the aisles of the temporary lot talking to a few customers who had heard that the dealership was offering up to 50 percent off on cars. Huff said he’d rather sell cars at the temporary lot than drive them back. As of Friday afternoon, three cars were sold at the remote lot and employees drove would-be buyers back to the dealership to sign papers in a Hummer.
The Barberton dealership sells Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Fiat brands, as well as used cars.
Huff said the dealership had not yet confirmed a loss of any vehicle, but he suspects there will eventually be a couple. There were cars in storage at the old Wallace Lincoln-Mercury farther down Barberton Road and some of those might be damaged, he said.
“Nothing went under water,” Huff said. However, workers will make inspections and not sell any cars found to have sustained water damage.
Huff said the majority of vehicles — 800 — were at the Rolling Acres lot with 200 on high ground at the dealership and another 200 at the former Wallace storage lot.
The dealership will have sales people at the Rolling Acres lot today until noon for the sale. Huff said workers will begin driving vehicles back around noon.
Workers will use a street sweeper to clean the lots after the water fully recedes. Security will also remain with the vehicles at the former mall lot, Huff said.
Huff said getting permission to park the cars at the former mall was secondary to protecting the inventory of the business. “Our lawyers are attempting to get a hold of the [mall] owners to work something out,” he said.
The mall closed in 2008, although many of the former department store spaces are now filled by private companies. The only retail location left is the former JCPenney Outlet, now called JC’s 5 Star Outlet.
Donna and Steve Derrick of Rittman came to Rolling Acres after seeing on Facebook that the dealership was offering price cuts. The Derricks had already been eyeing a GMC Denali truck and had visited the dealership last Saturday.
Steve Derrick said the couple is “no worse off” if the deal they were offered wasn’t good enough. “It was worth a ride here,” he said.
The Derricks left the lot without buying and said they’d think about it some more.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.