Houston area car retailers and automakers are rushing to reopen dealerships and beef up inventory to replace many thousands of vehicles damaged in flooding from Hurricane Harvey. Pete DeLongchamps, vice president for manufacturer relations at Group 1 Automotive Inc, the third-largest U.S. auto dealer group, said the company prepared for the storm with a plan designed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This included moving moved inventory to higher ground and cleaning roof drains to avoid cave-ins. Group 1 thus lost a “relatively small percentage” of inventory and reopened its roughly 25 dealerships in the Houston and Beaumont area by Thursday. “Things have been moving fast and furious with a large number of tow-ins already,” DeLongchamps said. […]