N.S. officials to discuss how to prepare for hurricane season
Provincial officials are discussing how residents should prepare for hurricane season this afternoon in Halifax.
CBC will be livestreaming the 1 p.m. AT press conference.
John Lohr, the minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office (EMO) and Municipal Affairs, will be speaking alongside Jason Mew, the EMO director of incident management.
Bob Robichaud, an Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist, Matt Drover of Nova Scotia Power and Ancel Langille of the Canadian Red Cross will also be participating.
The hurricane season is approaching while some households are still recovering from damage related to the wildfires and floods earlier this year.
On Thursday, the Insurance Bureau of Canada said claims stemming from the destructive flooding last month in Nova Scotia amount to $170 million.
That number does not capture people who did not have insurance to cover the cost of repairs. Overland flooding or damage caused by storm surges is often not included in insurance packages.
Graham Little, interim vice-president Atlantic of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said property owners need to be familiar with what their policies cover and what they exclude.
During Fiona, the storm that devastated parts of Atlantic Canada last fall, he said much of the damage was caused by high winds. Typically, home insurance covers repairs when water gets into a home if a roof is damaged. But heavy rains pose different risks.
“You may have seen water intrude a home in other ways, either up through the foundation, which isn’t always very typically covered, or in through, you know, windows or doors or things like that — which would only be covered if those were sort of specifically named insured risks,” Little said.
The province is offering up to $200,000 per household to cover uninsurable losses related to the July flooding.
CBC News has reached out to the Emergency Management Office for an update on how many people have applied for disaster assistance and information on how much has been paid out so far. The department has not yet responded.
Getting properties fixed a challenge
Getting a quote from an insurance adjuster after a weather event is fairly straightforward, Little said. It’s getting the work completed that might be more challenging — particularly with many regions in the country dealing with catastrophic weather events.
“Insurers, their main goal is to get … claims opened and closed as efficiently as possible,” he said.
“It has been difficult to make sure that there are, you know, qualified folks to take on those repairs. Especially when they’re more widespread like Fiona … the availability of labour will certainly be an issue to watch.”
MORE TOP STORIES
