What A West Virginia Rain Week Does To Your Truck Claims

Rain Is The Story On West Virginia Roads This Week

The National Weather Service office in Charleston kept a flood watch up across 28 West Virginia counties through Wednesday morning, and WV MetroNews reported on September 21 that the watch had been extended as another round of heavy rain moved in. Overnight into Tuesday the Charleston office had flood warnings out for Barbour, Braxton, Gilmer, Harrison, Lewis and Upshur counties with 1 to 3 inches of rain already down, and it called out Interstate 79 between mile markers 74 and 101 along with two stretches of Route 33 as roads taking water. Lewis County Commissioner Agnes Queen told MetroNews the county still had a lot of roadways blocked by trees down from the earlier storms.

If you run West Virginia you already know the drill. What is worth sitting with is how differently a week like this lands on a small fleet here. Our page on commercial truck insurance in West Virginia covers the statewide picture. This post is about the water and what it does to a claim.

A Closed Route Here Is Rarely A Short Detour

Most states hand you a parallel road. West Virginia often does not. The valley has one road in it, the creek runs beside that road, and the ridge sits above it. When the creek comes up or the hillside lets go there is no lane to move over into.

The clearest recent example was not even a flood. On July 30 a rock slide came down on WV 3 at mile marker 8.3 near Sundial in Raleigh County. Division of Highways crews worked it with Alpha Metallurgical Resources sending equipment to break up the biggest boulders, and one lane was back open the next morning. WVVA noted that a similar slide close by in 2013 closed that road for 41 days. The cause this time was ground saturation after more than an inch of rain. Water does not have to touch your tires to take your route away.

In July the same pattern shut an interstate. West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported that Governor Patrick Morrisey declared a state of emergency for all 55 counties after the flash flooding on July 21 and 22, with 3 to 5.5 inches of rain in Lewis County and up to 7 inches in Upshur County. Both lanes of I-79 closed at Jane Lew overnight and the southbound side was still shut at Quiet Dell the next morning.

Water Damage To Your Own Truck Is A Coverage Question

Here is where owner operators get surprised. Flood, rising water, mud and falling rock are comprehensive perils, which means they sit inside physical damage coverage and not inside your liability. If you carry liability only because the truck is paid off, a unit that sat in high water overnight is your loss and nobody else's.

Two practical notes. First, the damage is often not the part you can see. Water in the bottom of an air dryer, water pulled into an engine through the intake, and a soaked wiring harness all show up weeks later, so photograph the water line on the truck the day it happens. Second, a hydro locked engine from driving into standing water is usually still a covered comprehensive loss, but plenty of adjusters will look hard at whether the road was already barricaded. Turning around is cheaper than proving that point.

Wet Freight Turns Into A Cargo Claim Fast

The other half of a rain event is what is riding on the trailer. Paper, drywall, produce, packaged food and most electronics are finished the moment they take water, and a shipper does not have to prove much to file. Motor truck cargo coverage responds to physical loss of or damage to the freight, so a tarp that let go on a mountain grade or a trailer that took water through a bad seal is squarely in scope. A load that simply arrived two days late because the road was gone usually is not.

If you are moving time sensitive freight through central West Virginia this week, tell the broker early that the route is under a watch and get the delay documented before it happens rather than after. And check your cargo limit against what you are actually hauling, because a full trailer of packaged goods can beat a 100,000 dollar limit without looking like much.

What To Do Before The Next Watch Goes Up

Pull up West Virginia 511 before you leave, not after you are committed to a valley. Park on high ground when you shut down, because an overnight in the wrong lot is how trucks end up in water. Photograph the unit after a wet run so there is a dated record. And know before the water comes whether your policy actually carries comprehensive, what that deductible is, and what your cargo limit and exclusions say.

We write owner operators and small fleets across the state and we will read your current policy with you line by line. Get a truck insurance quote in under a minute through our quote form, or call or text 423-264-4255 and talk to a person. If you want the broader coverage and pricing picture first, start on our West Virginia truck insurance page.