Client News

IAA’s Ida CAT Response was Exceptional

Helping Our Customers and Communities in Their Greatest Time of Need

Published September 23, 2021 - Written by Steve Muscarello

3 min read

Summary

In his September Client News Steve Muscarello provides an update on IAA’s CAT Response to Hurricane Ida, which slammed Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

So many great things are happening within IAA right now, but in today’s Client News, I specifically want to get you up to speed on our exceptional performance as we aid in recovery efforts from Hurricane Ida.

IAA’s industry-leading CAT Response and Land Strategy has again proven successful. We moved quickly, secured adequate land in key storm-affected locations, maintained open communication, optimized resources, and serviced our customers as well as the communities during their greatest time of need. I am extremely proud of our ability to execute.

Our proactive and flexible CAT Response Strategy provides an unmatched level of service no matter where or when catastrophe strikes. After the Category 4 hurricane left residents of Louisiana and Mississippi storm-ravaged and without power, the remnants of Ida moved up the coast. States in the Northeast (particularly New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) were impacted by historic rainfall, flooding and tornadoes that struck the night of September 1st. While the severity of the storm was unexpected, IAA’s Catastrophe Response Strategy immediately went into action in the tri-state area, while still fully engaged in recovery efforts down south.

It was essential that we provide our customers ample space, efficient accessibility and close proximity to the affected areas in the Northeast. IAA’s Flexible Capacity Model has proven overwhelmingly successful given the tremendous increase of inventory in a densely populated area with extremely limited land.

We exercised our option on the Riverhead Airport property in Long Island within hours of the storm hitting – on a holiday weekend – and we were able to start taking in the influx of volume immediately with the first vehicles arriving the Saturday of Labor Day weekend (September 4). On the same day, IAA had also secured two additional major parcels of land close to New York City.

Our tower network was deployed immediately with recruitment efforts ongoing through the holiday weekend, resulting in hundreds of trucks on the road for IAA within a matter of 48 hours. Only two weeks post-storm we had tens of thousands of Ida vehicles safely and securely checked in at our branches and CAT yards. IAA’s centralized release process enabled us to expedite the pick-up process for CAT volume and ensured that our non-catastrophe vehicles were picked up on schedule as well.

It is hard to believe it hasn’t even been a full 3 weeks since the storm hit. We’ve worked diligently in this time to aid these communities – and of course our customers and their policyholders! In this short time, we’ve picked up nearly 95% of released vehicles, and are now focused on marketing and selling Ida inventory. As we know, getting to market early with CAT vehicles typically brings better results at auction.

We’ve received direct feedback from our clients in the affected areas that IAA has delivered best-in-class service and support from day one. We are proud of everyone involved in this outstanding execution. It’s a great time to be a part of Team IAA!

As always, stay healthy and safe. For those of you directly impacted by Ida – we are thinking of you. Thank you for your business. We will continue to keep you up to speed on all things IAA and Ida recovery.