ISU Flood Insurance?

[isugcs]

Simple question: Does ISU have flood insurance for the effected facilities? If so, this isn't all so bad, if not, this is absolutely horrible and will break ISU's budget this year. Anyone have a clue on this?

[Rogue52]

I don't have an answer, but I have a feeling it's no. Why? Because flood insurance for those buildings would most likely break ISU's budget on a yearly basis.

[isugcs]

True. Insurance companies likely know it's not only possible, it's happened before. That's a real shame, not that anything could be done.

[JRE1975]

Most State governments are self insured for these things because they have a large enough pool of assets spread over a large area. Any damage generally will be confined to a relatively small area. The damage will be bad from these floods, but the dollar amount will probably not be large in relation to the $700 million plus overall ISU budget, or the state $6+ billion budget. The floods at EIU were a lot worse and it is all getting fixed.

[isugcs]

Most State governments are self insured for these things because they have a large enough pool of assets spread over a large area. Any damage generally will be confined to a relatively small area. The damage will be bad from these floods, but the dollar amount will probably not be large in relation to the $700 million plus overall ISU budget, or the state $6+ billion budget. The floods at EIU were a lot worse and it is all getting fixed.

[tube1]

But how much of this 'self insurance' will we have to pay out to the University of Texas?

[bugs4cy]

Most State governments are self insured for these things because they have a large enough pool of assets spread over a large area. Any damage generally will be confined to a relatively small area. The damage will be bad from these floods, but the dollar amount will probably not be large in relation to the $700 million plus overall ISU budget, or the state $6+ billion budget. The floods at EIU were a lot worse and it is all getting fixed.

Iowa's self insurance = the State General Fund. I have painful, first-hand experience with this, dancing between the Board of Regents, Governor's office and Attorney General.

In all likelihood, the Governor will declare Story County to be a disaster area, making it eligible for federal aid. What happens after than has the potential to be a mess, full of bureaucracy and minutia that no one has time to deal with properly.

And, I have to add that it's easy for everyone to sit on this message board today and carp about why buildings were built in a floodplain. I've also sat with legislators while they absolutely blast the DNR because their floodplain maps are 'too inclusive'. Whatever the path, someone is mad.

[BoxsterCy]

And, I have to add that it's easy for everyone to sit on this message board today and carp about why buildings were built in a floodplain. I've also sat with legislators while they absolutely blast the DNR because their floodplain maps are 'too inclusive'. Whatever the path, someone is mad.

At the time the buildings were built the flood of record was the one in 1918. Currently nine of the top 10 floods on Squaw Creek have occurred since 1975 with only 1918 outside of the period 1975 - 2010. Building in the floodplain at this location didn’t seem like such a bad move from a risk perspective with the hydraulic information available in the 1960’s. The peak of this 2010 flood at 20,000 cfs is around twice the amount of water that would be estimated for the 1918 flood at around 10,000 cfs. It’s not normal practice to take the flood of record and than plan for a volume that is twice that much. Of course if you were looking at building there today you would have all of those floods from 1975 to 2010 as reference and your risk assessment would be way different.

[vmbplayer]

Simple Answer. No.

I took a class with Dr. Mark Power called Corporate Risk Management and Insurance.

ISU is self insured. Which in real terms means that ISU just pays the damages when they happen. The calculation is done using all those fun actuarial tables and it shows it's cheaper to pay the damage when it happens than to pay the premiums. ISU has not always been self insured however, they used to be insured by Principle before they de-mutualized.

[ianoconnor]

Simple Answer. No.

I took a class with Dr. Mark Power called Corporate Risk Management and Insurance.

ISU is self insured. Which in real terms means that ISU just pays the damages when they happen. The calculation is done using all those fun actuarial tables and it shows it's cheaper to pay the damage when it happens than to pay the premiums. ISU has not always been self insured however, they used to be insured by Principle before they de-mutualized.

I took that class too. Mark Power was my favorite professor at ISU. Great dude!

[egunzy]

Pretty sure that Hilton, et al, is bulit in a designated flood plain so even if ISU wanted to insurance there it would either be expensive or likely not available.

[aauummm]

Iowa's self insurance = the State General Fund. I have painful, first-hand experience with this, dancing between the Board of Regents, Governor's office and Attorney General.

In all likelihood, the Governor will declare Story County to be a disaster area, making it eligible for federal aid. What happens after than has the potential to be a mess, full of bureaucracy and minutia that no one has time to deal with properly.

And, I have to add that it's easy for everyone to sit on this message board today and carp about why buildings were built in a floodplain. I've also sat with legislators while they absolutely blast the DNR because their floodplain maps are 'too inclusive'. Whatever the path, someone is mad.

And what's so funny about that is that the "flood plain maps" are generated by a hydraulic modeling program by FEMA not by the DNR. The federal flood plain maps are drawn up to minimize development of obstructions to flood flows in the flood plain as well as for federal flood insurance purposes. (It's a whole lot more technical than that, but that's a brief statement meant for general public consumption)

[jbhtexas]

At the time the buildings were built the flood of record was the one in 1918. Currently nine of the top 10 floods on Squaw Creek have occurred since 1975 with only 1918 outside of the period 1975 - 2010. Building in the floodplain at this location didn’t seem like such a bad move from a risk perspective with the hydraulic information available in the 1960’s. The peak of this 2010 flood at 20,000 cfs is around twice the amount of water that would be estimated for the 1918 flood at around 10,000 cfs. It’s not normal practice to take the flood of record and than plan for a volume that is twice that much. Of course if you were looking at building there today you would have all of those floods from 1975 to 2010 as reference and your risk assessment would be way different.

The facilities are built. The climate appears to be in a more wet cycle (or maybe it's not a cycle and is permanent) than it was 40 years ago. This is happening in other areas as well. The question is, with what is now known about the flood plain, how does ISU protect Hilton/RCA/Scheman etc. from future floods. Squaw Creek was regularly flooding back in the early '90s. It flooded quite badly in 1992 as well, before the 'big one' of 1993. Yet, we are 17 years later, and there still is no protection.

[ISUAgronomist]

Yet, we are 17 years later, and there still is no protection.

That should do it.

[mike4cy]

I took that class too. Mark Power was my favorite professor at ISU. Great dude!

^^^ This. Mark Power was easily my favorite prof at ISU, I was lucky enough to take 2 insurance classes with him.