Property damage from the Aug. 7 and 8 hailstorms on that ravaged Airdrie and Balzac areas is now estimated at $450 million, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). The IBC originally estimated the figure at closer to $25 million.
Bill Adams, vice president for the Western and Pacific Region of the IBC, said the $450 million estimate is based on concrete data supplied by insurance companies.
“We do a survey. We contract a company called PCS (Property Claim Services) who contacts all the insurance companies and finds out the number of claims that they’ve paid or anticipate they’re going to pay as a result of this particular storm,” he explained.
Adams said the time it takes for PCS to compile the survey is the reason for the vast difference between the initial estimate released the week after the storm and the latest estimate.
“They pull all that information together and have industry-wide numbers, but that obviously takes a bit of time to compile,” he said.
According to the IBC, the August hailstorms bring insurance payments from natural catastrophes to $4 billion in Alberta since 2011, including $1.7 billion for the floods that struck southern Alberta in June of 2013.
“This would certainly rank, within the Alberta context and within the national context, well in the top-10 of significant weather events since 2011,” Adams said.
According to the IBC, other significant events in Alberta since 2011 include a hailstorm in Calgary in August of 2012 that resulted in insured damage of more than $535 million and a serious fire in Slave Lake, Alberta, in May of 2011 that had estimated insured damage of more than $717 million.
Adams said insurance companies often have to bring in extra staff to help deal with the volume of claims.
“When we have a significant event like this when we have so many people, all of whom want service, it comes down to a service issue,” he explained.
“Companies don’t want to tell their customers ‘well, you’re 100th in line. We’ll get to you when we get to you.’ They’ll bring in resources from across their company so that their response time is consistent with what they’ve set as a company.”
According to the IBC, there are things people can do to prepare for severe weather, including preparing a detailed home inventory and taking photos or video of belongings so they have something to refer to should they need to file a claim. The IBC also recommends homeowners have an emergency preparedness plan.
The City of Airdrie has a worksheet on their website that allows homeowners to complete their own emergency preparedness plan.
The worksheet can be downloaded from airdrie.ca
