Grand Island, Nebraska, Renews Terrorism Insurance Rider

The Grand Island, Neb., City Council has decided to continue a terrorism rider on the city insurance plan again next year.

Utilities director Gary Mader said the city’s general policy doesn’t cover terrorism, so the rider had to be added.

It will cost nearly $22,000, up from $20,000 this year – the first year the city has purchased such coverage.

The Grand Island City Council rejected such coverage in 2003, when terrorism riders first became available. Last week the council votes to buy a rider for a second straight year.

Coverage has been available since a federal program passed in 2002, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

According to The Grand Independent, Mader said the question facing people, businesses and government entities is how to define terrorism. He said a number of groups might be classified as terrorist. Some are internationally based, others are based in the United States.

Mader said he doesn’t think a central Nebraska city such as Grand Island would be a terrorist target, but if it were, the financial losses could soar.

For example, the city’s power plants are valued at about $300 million.

Information from: The Grand Island Independent

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Latest Comments

• September 28, 2010 at 1:23 am

  Bluemax says:

  The underlying problem is the need for the feds to admit an act of terrorism for a coverage trigger. It is very hard for this administration to admit to anything.
• September 28, 2010 at 1:12 am

  Herbie Husker says:

  The South Dakota Jackrabbits coming in last Saturday to terrorize the Football team in Lincoln is the only act of terrorism that will be experienced by any town in Nebraska.