The flood brought in the wake of the storm Debby will have caused $2.5 billion in insured damage, according to initial estimates from Catastrophic Indices and Quantification Inc. reported by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). The rains of August 9 and 10 top the list of the most costly natural disasters in Quebec history.
The bill generated by the torrential rain that fell on August 9 and 10 in the south of the province thus downgrades the amounts paid out in the wake of the 1998 ice storm. Debby already crowned “the most difficult summer on record in terms of damage attributable to weather events and natural disasters,” recalls the BAC.
This season, marked by flooding in Toronto and southern Ontario, hailstorms in Calgary, destructive wildfires in Jasper and flooding in Quebec, has led to 228,000 claims for compensation in Canada.
Last year, the BAC compares, insurers received 113,000 claims in July and August and 160,000 claims for the whole year.
Climate adaptation
The bill paid by insurers, in the wake of two days of rain poured by Debbyexceeds the amounts invested by Ottawa “over the last decade” in adaptation to climate change, points out Craig Stewart, vice-president of climate change and federal issues at IBC. “Insurers paid out more in compensation for the flooding event in Quebec than the federal government invested in climate adaptation over the last decade,” he points out.
“All levels of government,” he insisted in a statement, “must commit to once and for all preventing building and rebuilding in flood plains and wildfire-prone areas, investing in disaster mitigation, including upgrading stormwater infrastructure, and implementing programs for fire- and flood-proof homes.”
Weather events cause losses in Canada that “now regularly exceed $2 billion per year,” the IBC maintains. “For comparison,” the organization concludes, “between 2001 and 2010, Canadian insurers covered an average of $701 million per year in losses related to severe weather events.”