There was a rumour that Toyota had allowed hundreds of cars to be
destroyed during the Thailand floods of last year. The cost to move
them to higher ground and bring them back, then sell them with mileage
would have been too great. So, they let them get destroyed by the
floods and simply collected the insurance.
Same thing is happening with Americans in the storm path. They've
left their old cars to be destroyed by the flooding so they can claim
it on their insurance. They had days of warning, yet they didn't move
vehicles to higher ground or further inland.