Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport recorded 9.19 inches of rain on August 22, the second highest daily amount of rainfall on record. Twenty-eight police vehicles were damaged by floodwaters.PHOTO: Dallas Police Department
More than two dozen Dallas Police Department vehicles were damaged in what meteorologists have called a "thousand-year rain event" in late August.
Dallas Police Public Information Officer Senior Cpl. Brian Martinez told POLICE’s sister publication Government Fleet that the vehicles are still being inspected, so it's not clear whether they are a total loss. The police equipment inside the vehicles is also still being inspected. The department does not currently have an estimate on the cost of the damages to the vehicles.
When asked about impact the flooding has on the department's need for new vehicles, Martinez said the department is "well-positioned to make vehicle replacements." He said there are currently more than 70 units in the immediate pipeline for the department, including marked squad cars, along with light trucks and SUVs. The vehicles are in various stages of being prepared for patrol use. Among those are more than a dozen Chevrolet Tahoe patrol vehicles waiting on microchips for emergency equipment inside the vehicles. A spokesperson explained that the vehicles themselves are ready to be used, but the equipment is not.
