What to know about insurance claims after flash flood in Ontario
TORONTO — Canadian homeowners are increasingly adding flood coverage to their insurance policies as extreme weather events become more common, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
And after Tuesday’s intense bout of flash flooding in southern Ontario, some residents may be finding out the hard way that their insurance doesn’t cover flooding — and will be rushing to add that optional coverage to their policy for the future.
“If you live in a flood hazard area or you’ve experienced a flood before, people might be more aware of what their insurance policy may or may not cover, and the options that are available to them,” said Rob de Pruis, national director of consumer and industry relations for the bureau.
“But if you’ve just moved to the area or if you’ve never experienced this before, you may or may not have this coverage.”
Torrential rain hit Toronto and the surrounding area on Tuesday, flooding major highways and a key transit hub amid rainfall warnings for much of southern Ontario.
It’s too early to tell the extent of the damage, said de Pruis, but “we do know that this was a very significant flooding event.”
Many are already comparing Tuesday’s event to a Toronto-area flood in July 2013 that forced almost 80,000 people to evacuate. According to the bureau, the floods resulting from storms in the area caused record levels of rain.
Just a month earlier, catastrophic floods in Calgary forced almost 80,000 people to evacuate and claimed five lives.
The two events combined cost the insurance industry about $3.1 billion in claims, the bureau said.
Optional flood insurance is becoming more popular for homeowners across Canada, and more insurers offer it, said de Pruis, as extreme weather events like this week’s
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