I can't believe the things going to the scrap yard from the floods

I have been helping my brother clean up his electronics store. Everything went under water and he lost about 250k in inventory. I have been taking down what I can to the scrap yard to get him any cash at all, mostly metal items.
I am just amazed at the lines going into the yards it just blows my mind. I wonder how much of this stuff could have been saved and sold instead of scraping for a quick buck.
One guy had a stake body truck and a 16 foot trailer loaded with lawn mowers. There had to have been 75 to 100 mowers. Many of them looked new or in good condition.
In my experience it is not that hard to get a motor going even if it went under water.
I had a boat with a 350 motor that went under twice. Just drain the oil, take the plugs out and turn it over to blow the water out of the cylinders, put new oil in start it up let it run a while and chance the oil again.
I even had a little tractor go through the ice on a pond. I managed to turn it off before it went under. Saved that one too.
So for me to see all those lawn mowers go to scrap just made me cringe.

why did you not buy them from the scrap yard? You could have loaded them up onto your trailer and paid them some cash and got them fixed =P....

It has to do with insurance. Flood damaged - insurance pays and owns the stuff. Not worth it for them to fool with it, so it gets scrapped. And if you were in business selling mowers, etc would you want your reputation on the line for selling water-damaged goods?

If I did not have much going on I would have talked to him but I am buried right now.