Local businesses that lost power last weekend after Thursday’s violent wind storm started picking up the pieces as best they could. Most were open for business, but owners have started to question who will pay for the revenue lost because of the storm.
House of Records music store on 13th Avenue lost its power when a tree crashed through its roof and severed the power line running overhead. The Eugene Water and Electric Board had the store’s power restored Sunday, and the gaping hole in its roof has been patched with tarps, but manager Raenie Kane wants to know who will pay for the estimated $6,000 worth of business she lost.
“We lost power because the tree that hit the building snagged a power line,” she said. “How often do we get a freak windstorm like that?”
Insurance companies are scrambling to process the claims resulting from the windstorm. State Farm Insurance spokesman Jeff Aeschliman said a national team has been assembled just to work on the claims, which they have been processing at a break-neck speed.
With a typical business package policy, “Most the damages would be covered,” Aeschliman said. He added that every claim is handled individually. While a tree crashing into the roof would most likely be fully covered, “In general, if there’s no physical damage, the loss of power isn’t covered,” he said.
Farmers Insurance Group Branch Supervisor Steve Hendrickson said his company is also taking the claims seriously.
“Our adjusters are the ‘storm troopers.’ They go around from storm to storm,” he said.
The owners of Pegasus Smokehouse Pizza are welcoming the extra help. Their basement-level bar flooded when an electric pump failed to operate and stop water from flooding the basement floor.
The business had no power until late Sunday afternoon, and co-owner Paul Reader said the pizza place lost $10,000 of business during the weekend.
Reader and his wife, Lori, also a co-owner of Pegasus, believe EWEB was negligent in returning power promptly to his business and the surrounding campus area, and is planning to sue the utility for out-of-pocket expenses incurred during the outage.
EWEB spokesman Lance Robertson said he’s surprised the restaurant is suing the utility.
“It’s the first I’ve heard of it,” he said. “I’m not sure what grounds they would sue us on.”
EWEB’s six crews and eight additional crews from Portland worked 18-hour shifts over the weekend, clearing the more than 300 fallen trees littering the city and replacing the 60 utility poles that were destroyed by the storm.
“This is probably the worst storm we’ve had in years,” Robertson said.