Thunderstorm winds rip roof off used car dealership

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Several vehicles were damaged Monday afternoon when strong winds lifted the roof off Spring Street Motors. The cars were uninsured. (Duane Sherrill photo)

Wind severely damaged Spring Street Motors Monday afternoon, lifting off the dealerships roof and dumping it squarely on top of vehicles in the sales lot.

“It lifted it up in back and turned it over like you’d turn over a leaf,” said Lee Duncan, owner/operator of the Spring Street establishment since 1958.

Duncan, who runs the one-man operation, said he had left for the day when the damage happened. The metal roof ended up causing substantial body damage to some of his cars, vehicles Duncan revealed are not covered by insurance.

“The insurance is just too expensive to afford,” Duncan said. “What I’ll do is probably mark them down and sell them ‘as is’ since they are all drivable and just have body damage from the roof.”

Duncan said this is not the first time his business has taken a hard hit. Back in 1965, Duncan said a motorist “drunk as a skunk” failed to negotiate the curve in front of his business and ran through the lot, striking many of his cars in his uninsured vehicle.

“He must have been doing 90,” Duncan said. “He spent a night in jail, then got out and I never heard from him.”

Duncan’s dealership was one of several reports of damage around the area including reports of shingles blown off city hall and the loss of a house on the BRC property due to a lightning strike. There were also isolated reports of trees down as result of the strong winds which came with the severe thunderstorm Monday afternoon.