Grand Island, NE Buys Terrorism Coverage…Again

If you’re like us, Nebraska isn’t the first place you think of when someone says “ripe for a terrorist attack,” but the folks who live in Grand Island, Nebraska think otherwise, which is why their City Council has decided to continue the terrorism rider on the city insurance plan for another year.

Gary Mader, the city’s utilities director, said that the city’s general policy doesn’t cover terrorism, which is why the rider had to be added, and a cost of $22,000, up from $20,000 this year, the first in which the city has had such coverage.

When terrorism coverage riders first became available in 2003, the Grand Island City Council voted against buying it, which makes last week’s vote to purchase the coverage for the second year in a row an interesting turn of events.

The terrorism coverage was created by a 2002 federal program, passed in reaction to the the events of September 11, 2001.

In a statement to the Grand Independent, Mayder said that the question most people, businesses and governments are facing is the determination of what constitutes terrorism. He said that there are several groups which could be classified as terrorist, some of which are domestic, while others are internationally based.

While Mader doesn’t actually believe that Grand Island is a likely terrorist target, he says if it did, the financial losses could be significant. The city’s power plants, for example, are worth around $300 million.