Category | News

Personal auto insurance pays for flood damage

Published on October 13, 2009 by Alan Moore

Students, faculty and staff whose vehicles were damaged in the severe flooding Sept. 21 found out shortly after that their personal insurance coverage is the financial outlet for repairs.

In a statement e-mailed to members of the KSU community on the evening of Sept. 22, university President Daniel Papp said, “We have been advised by the state Department of Administrative Services that the state is not responsible for weather-related damage to personal vehicles.  Thus, KSU students, faculty or staff who experienced damage to their personal vehicles while parked on campus should pursue the matter with your personal insurers.”

Flora DeVine, university Attorney and Special Assistant to the President for Legal Affairs, echoed the statement last week: “The Department of Administrative Services handles issues such as these that happen on state property, and they advised us that the state is not responsible for handling matters such as this. We’re concerned about the flooded vehicles, but the policy is that we are not responsible for damages.”

A point of mild disagreement throughout campus has been the actual number of cars that were damaged during the torrential rains.

“We don’t have a number on how many vehicles were damaged as the claims are being handled through outside insurance agencies rather than with the state,” said DeVine.

According to Randy Hinds, vice president for Operations, in the days after the flooding events, videos were posted on YouTube showing that most vehicles parked on the lowest levels of the East Deck were removed from the facility before the water subsided.  The East Deck and the parking lots for houses on Campus Loop Road were the main parking areas on campus that flooded.

“The cause of the flooding was the amount of rain, which was reported to be more than 14 inches within a 12-hour period. This measurement was taken from the rain gauge of a building contractor that is working on a campus project,” said Hinds.

During the height of the flooding Sept. 21, news outlets throughout metro-Atlanta began reporting that forecasters and scientists believed this event was known as the “500 year flood,” meaning that the odds of such an occurrence are once in every 500 years.

Hinds said the university is taking steps to prevent future issues.

“While we cannot guarantee that this type of rain will not occur again, the university is taking steps to review the areas that flooded and to make any possible improvements,” said Hinds. “One of the improvements to the East Parking Deck will be to add an additional storm drain on the deck’s west side. Also, because dirt and silt normally get into the storm drain system, we can expect more dirt and silt as a result of this huge amount of rain and flooding. So, we have cleaned most of the storm drain pipes around campus of any silt build-up.”

According to Hinds, total damage to the campus as a result of the flooding was between $1 million and $1.5 million.  Approximately $5,000 of that is devoted to the East Deck draining improvements.