MetroRail claims question

Hi friends. I live in Austin and was in Houston for a symposium at UH back in June. While I was there, I was approaching an intersection near campus and had a protected left arrow. As I entered the intersection (the green arrow was still on), the crossing gates for a MetroRail train came down. I had no time to clear the intersection. I had to stop so that I wouldn’t ram into the gate that came down in front of me and the gate behind me struck the car (which we had just bought the previous weekend) and damaged it. I was trapped between the gates as the train passed.

I have since filed a claim with MetroRail and received a letter from a claims agent informing me that she needed to get a statement from me. I replied to the letter immediately, only to receive an out of office reply. That was on October 10. I have since tried to contact this person via email and phone half a dozen times. I have left voicemails for her, for the alternate contact in her out of office reply, and the main claims line to no avail.

So … am I cooked? Am I just going to have to eat the thousands of dollars of damage to the car we'd owned less than a week when the MetroRail goblins struck? Has anyone successfully navigated the claims process with MetroRail?