911 Center/Police Department
Claims Professional, Law Enforcement, Equipment Damage Experts, Businesses
Scenario
This loss involved the main station for a Police Department of a Midwest town, including the dispatching system for the police as well as radio equipment, computer sever, networking equipment, fire alarm system, burglar alarm, and assorted electronics.
Challenge
As a result lightning at the main station of the Police Department, police service was significantly hampered. A larger portion of the equipment was older, dated hardware that had worked nearly trouble free for years. As such the Police Department was unsure how to proceed and faced with the lack of adequate service submitted claim for over $700,000, opting to replace every system in lieu of investigating any possible more cost affective and potentially faster alternatives.
Outcome
LWG inspected the facility and the involved equipment. Based on this inspection, we were able to determine that police department had experienced two lightning strikes. Although the lightning did not directly hit the insured’s facility, the strikes were close enough to cause an inductively coupled surge in telecommunication lines as well as other low voltage lines. However, LWG was also able to determine that large portions of the electronics were not damaged and could be quickly and cost effectively repaired. However, due to the lack of prior problems, the insured did not have a develop list of vendors for most of the equipment. LWG proceeded to research and locate all the vendors that originally installed the affected equipment. Some vendors were local while others came from as far away as Alabama. Based on this information, LWG was able to present the Police Department and the insurer with an alternate plan that would quickly return the insured to a pre-loss condition at less than 20% of the cost of replacement.