Despite a final figure for insurance claims from last month’s flood potentially months away, indications from a national industry association are that it could be eight figures.
Steve Kee, director of media relations for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, noted that he hasn’t seen anything that suggests overall damage will exceed $25 million.
“I’ve seen no report to indicate it would reach [that] threshold,” he said, adding anything over the benchmark requires a report from a third party.
Kee said he would not speculate on the timeline nor the total. “It would take some time. I’d say at this point it’s too early to tell.”
In the case of the Fort McMurray wildfire in May, it took months before numbers started to roll in, Kee said.
In Westlock, insurance providers were inundated with claims following an overland flood on Aug. 22 caused by more than 100 millimetres of rain.
Kee said following the receipt of claims, companies send out adjusters to review them.
“Most times what happens after an event they’ll talk to their insurance company, then would document what went on. An adjuster would come and repairs would take place,” he said.
As to what’s covered and what’s not, it all comes down to each individual policy.
“There are a couple of companies that offer overland flood insurance, but generally that’s not traditionally something that’s covered,” he said.
“Sewer backup is if you have a water endorsement on your policy.”
Any residents with damage not covered off by insurance may have the option of piggybacking on the Town of Westlock’s application to the provincial government.
CAO Dean Krause said the municipality will be filing an application under the Alberta Disaster Recovery Program — forms for residents are available at the town office or online.
“Basically, it’s a grant program the province allows us to apply for when a municipality has had a natural-type event like flooding, fire and so forth.”
“We can apply for it and we can apply for it on behalf of our citizens.”
Krause said the application may be applicable for anyone with damage that’s not covered by insurance.
“They’ll review it and they might recoup us those costs.”
For the municipality, Krause said the program would examine damages to uninsurable infrastructure.
“We have insurance for all the buildings, so if we have damage that would be through our insurance, but there are items we can’t insure — roads, drainage ditches and so forth,” he said.
“We’ll be submitting the cost to repair those to the province once we have that all figured out.”
Krause said generally, eligible residential damage would be damage caused by overland flooding. Any applications must be submitted to the Town of Westlock office no later than Sept. 24.
