Floodwaters wipe out Michigan’s Fieros Forever
When Tim Evans decided to liquidate Fieros Forever, he didn’t mean it literally. Then came days of heavy rain, the nearby Sanford Dam was breached, and the Tittabawassee River roared through tiny Sanford, Michigan, leaving a flood of destruction in its wake. Evans’ shop and a small museum that he created—both devoted to the 1984–88 Pontiac Fiero—were destroyed.
Evans was surveying the damage earlier today and was unavailable to comment on the devastation, but his wife, Linda, described the scene.
“The building is completely flooded, the cars are scattered like matchsticks, and the museum is washed away,” she says. “You can see the dam from the shop—that’s how close it is—so you can image what happened when the water came rushing through.”
Tim Evans, 73, opened Fieros Forever in 2009. After 11 years, earlier this spring he decided to close the business and sell off the assets. An online auction was set for April 28, but the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted those plans. The auction was rescheduled for July 21, but the flood took care of that. More than a dozen cars, at least two engines, and numerous parts and shop tools have been lost.
Regardless, the Evans remain steadfast and upbeat.
“Yes, he’s heartbroken,” Linda says of her husband, “but we are Christ followers and we know that He’s got this. He’s going to take this rubble and turn it into something good. We’ve received so much support; we feel very blessed.
“Our house is just a mile up the road from the shop, and we were forced to evacuate on Tuesday. We didn’t know what we’d come back to, but the water never even came up into our yard. How did that happen when so many others have lost everything? Yes, we’ve lost the shop and the cars, but it could have been so much worse. His mercy is awesome. Thank you, God.”
According to a story in the Saginaw News in August 2009, Evans had to “gut the building, remove gas tanks under the eye of state Department of Environmental Quality, and spend about $10,000 revamping a former gas station and motorcycle shop.” At the time, Evans said the building and parking lot were jammed with 38 Fieros in “various stages of running.”
Now, everything has been washed away—except the Evans’ faith that good will come of it.
