Owners of biblical Noah's Ark replica sue over rain damage to property

(USA Today) — The owner of the life-size replica of Noah’s Ark in Northern Kentucky has sued its insurers for refusing to cover rain damage.

Ark Encounter, which unveiled the 510-foot-long model in 2016, says that heavy rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on its access road, and its five insurance carriers refused to cover nearly $1 million in damages.

In a 77-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Ark Encounter asks for compensatory and punitive damages.

The ark itself was not damaged and the road has been rebuilt, according to the suit.

The park is open, said Melany Ethridge, a spokeswoman at the attraction’s Dallas-based public relations firm, who only laughed when informed that Ark Encounter had sued over flood damage.

“You got to get to the boat to be on the boat,” she said.

But to Ark Encounter’s lawyer, Amanda Brooke Stubblefield, at the Cincinnati firm Keating, Muething & Klekamp, the suit is no laughing matter. “We are not going to comment to the press on this case,” she said.

Ethridge subsequently issued a statement that said: “The lawsuit speaks for itself. We don’t have anything to add at this time, other than to say that we are highly confident of the merits of our case as we seek a fair resolution to the matter.”

According to the Genesis flood narrative in the Bible, Noah’s Ark is the vessel through which God spares Noah, his family and two of each of the world’s animals from a world-engulfing flood.

Ark Encounter says its version in Williamstown was built to the dimensions in the Bible and is the largest timber-frame structure in the world.

The suit, which asks for a jury trial, names Swiss-based Allied World Assurance Co. Holdings, its use company and three other carriers.