Russo Steele Tent Collapse

[Shevelle]

There were two straps (or cables) extending from the top of each pole that were staked to the ground. The poles were about 8-10' apart the whole length of the tents..so there were a LOT of stakes but who knows how deep they were planted. I haven't looked at the photos referred to earlier in this post...but some of the cars looked as if someone had taken a ball ping hammer to them - the orange Superbird comes to mind. At first we thought it was large hail, but that didn't make sense because hail is not selective like this damage was. Just random cars with that type of damage. It turns out it was tent stakes..the ones that the pole cables were staked down with, still attached and hanging down from the partially collapsed tents. They were suspended over these cars, hanging down and beating them in the wind. Hard to explain...make sense?

[Bill Pritchard]

The stakes look like giant nails. I went to the Silver auction on Friday afternoon and the Event Management people were like a swarm of ants, checking and rechecking all the tent stakes and moving and re-securing them wherever they felt it necessary. They had those huge pneumatic hammers driving them into the ground.

[gb70]

What were the wind gust speeds at the time it all happened?

[Shevelle]

This Phoenix news station has raw helicopter footage taken early the next morning. On the right side of the screen under videos you'll see a link to Russo Damage Raw Video. Shows how the large poles fell across the cars.

Russo Raw Video

[Xplantdad]

Better link...


Click Here

[Xplantdad]

ttt

[Xplantdad]

ttt

[Lino]

The auctioneer / announcer across town at RM auctions took a moment to inform those attending about the mishap and GENUINELY expressed concern to the workers collectors and vintage cars involved in the disaster. Very well handled by the chaps at RM.

[PeteLeathersac]

As others have commented, it's truly great everyone's OK!.
That said, looking at the pictures the devastation is very serious and my heart goes out to Drew also Jacquie and anyone else w/ cars involved...especially those w/ survivor cars!.

Devastation pics...
https://sites.google.com/a/allclassi...steele-damages


~ Pete

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I like real cars best...especially the REAL real ones!

[tirebird]

Well, first of all, I'm not a lawyer or clairvoyant but this mess is just beginning. The storm is "an act of god", so that provides legal protection to the auctioneer. Secondly, I've never sold a car at auction so I'm not sure of the "boilerplate" in the sellers contract protecting the auction house from claims of this type of damage. Thirdly, if some owners were foolish enough to "go bare" and have an expensive car at this event without insurance(if that's possible), then they're going to be hunting for someone else to make them whole for their foolish decision. Fourthly, even if the owners have insurance to cover the damage, it doesn't mean that the insurance companies themselves won't be hunting for someone else to reimburse them for damages. I'm not familiar with Arizona law, but "negligence" is a legal term that has broad meaning. Did the auction house look at weather forecasts? Did the auction house take reasonable steps to protect the cars in light of this storm? Was the tent structure designed to withstand what type of wind event? Had this type of storm ever hit Scottsdale before and if so, did the auctioneer know about that possibility? I'm not blaming anyone here or saying R&S are responsible, but when you have high dollar damage to many high dollar owner, the legal system starts to heat up. Now, maybe R&S have their own insurance to cover this type of event and everything will be paid in quiet settlement conferences. Maybe it won't have to because it doesn't have any legal responsibility for this damage. Even with that possibility, everyone loses from this terrible event. R&S loses money with reduced sales. The owners, of damaged cars, have to deal with diminished value. The buyers don't get a chance to bid on a pristine undamaged great car.