Santa Rosa look to feds to reimburse school repairs from Dolly

SANTA ROSA - School officials expect the federal government to reimburse about 75 percent of the cost of cleaning up a school damaged by Hurricane Dolly, an official said Thursday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will likely reimburse the district for most of a $279,000 project to clean up and repair Elma Barrera Elementary School, Lucio Mendoza, the school district's chief financial officer, said.

The project's cost deepened a shortfall that's reached $800,000, Mendoza said.

The district's insurance company refused to pay for the cleanup and repair because it blamed the damage on wind-driven rain, which the company said is not covered by the insurance policy, Mendoza said. The district's insurance policy has a $100,000 deductible.

On Monday, school board members eliminated the jobs of six educators, including the directors of secondary and elementary education, in a move to trim about $300,000. FEMA's reimbursement will further offset the district's shortfall, Mendoza said.

"I have a very positive feeling about their assistance," Mendoza said.

So far, FEMA has approved payment of about $26,000, Mendoza said, and agency officials are awaiting the contractor's documentation of the project.

"We're trying to identify the damages and trying to determine what costs are eligible," Earl Armstrong, a FEMA spokesman in Dallas, said.

The hurricane's rains leaked through window seals, school officials said.

The district's insurance company, the Republic Group in Dallas, doesn't cover damages from wind-driven rain, said insurance agent Bob Shepard of Shepard Walton King Insurance Group in Harlingen.

"Almost all the commercial insurance companies do not provide coverage for wind-driven rain," Shepard said.

The insurance company doesn't cover damages in cases where structures show no physical sign of damage, Shepard said.

"In order for there to be coverage, there has to be an opening," Shepard said.

Rainwater can seep into buildings through windows' broken caulking, Shepard said. It becomes the owner's responsibility to maintain items such as windows, he said.

"They view it as a maintenance issue," he said of the insurance company.

Visible damages didn't meet the district's deductible, Mendoza said.

Damages that stemmed from three broken library windows and damaged roof shingles reached $62,000, Mendoza said.