Cookie

Saw many shocking TV reports. A long road ahead for cleaning up. Sincere sympathy for all those affected

Pollyana

Stay safe everyone - my thoughts are with you as you head towards the clean-up. Working with frequent large-scale flooding in Queensland I know only too well how long-lasting and devastating the effects can be

Shard

Where's AC? Hopefully he has not been swamped...

Almost Canadian

Fortunately, our place is some distance from the town and far enough uphill that it would take massive flooding for our property to be flooded.

However, we do not have telephone access via landline or cell and our internet has only just been restored. Compared to what others are having to go through, a minor inconvenience.

My eldest daughter had Thursday off school as her class attended a trip away from school for the previous few days. She and her grade had agreed to meet at school on Thursday and they met at the school just as the Highwood River started to rise.

She called us to say that they were being asked to assist with the evacuation of High River as the school had been commandeered to be used as a muster point. She arrived home at quarter past midnight Friday morning and said that, as she had served so many pancakes to those affected, she never wanted to see another pancake ever again in her life.

She said that those affected were very sad but were upbeat.

We have some people staying with us who are totally devastated. Speaking to them they indicated that, while they have house insurance, such disasters are not covered by insurance anywhere in Canada. I haven't looked into the legal side of that, but it seems wonky to me. However, watching the constant news reports yesterday, this appears to be the accepted position. Heavens knows what those affected will do.

I managed to make it to work in downtown Calgary by 6:30 a.m. yesterday. My office is in the Suncor building and when I arrived, downtown Calgary appeared to be OK in that area. By 9:00 a.m. the building was evacuated and, upon leaving, again, that area of downtown seemed OK and the trip home was relatively uneventful.

The thing that amazed me was how often people pulled over from Deerfoot Trail (for those that don't know it is a highway that runs north/south through the city with no intersections that one has to stop at - it has on/off ramps rather than traffic lights so it is the fastest road along which to travel when there are no issues with volume). Frequently, people would simply pull over 3 lanes to stop instantly when a photo opportunity arose and they rejoin equally as abruptly once they had taken their photo. Sheer madness.

I hope that all those affected will be able to deal with the clean up once the water subsides. My thoughts are with all of them.

Shard

Thanks for the great update. Insurers always seem to know how to get out of paying for something big !

lf1

The government stepped in after the flood of 2005, but I think the amounts paid out were capped, but my memory might be playing tricks on me. IMHO this where insurance should pay up. This is a catastrophic loss.
Many people, including some of my friends, will be severely impacted by this and I can only imagine that the recovery from this will not be a pleasant road.

Almost Canadian

If there is coverage, the insurers will have to pay. The issue is: whether such disasters were specifically excluded by policies. There was talk on the news of "overland" water damage, as opposed to a pipe bursting. The impression I was left with is that such damage is not available anywhere in Canada. I don't know whether this is correct.

Edit: This link would suggest it isn't covered: Overland water damage

Steve_P

Absolutely correct according to this article in today's Calgary Herald.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/fl...292/story.html

lf1

Yes, I know they will pay if it is covered in the policy (e.g. sewer back up, if purchased) IMO insurance should be available for this type of disaster, but unfortunately, for those affected, the impression you have been left with is probably correct with respect to homeowners. I think flood coverage is still available for commercial properties, so why not for homeowners.

Almost Canadian

Thanks Steve

JonboyE

It is the same in BC. Private insurers do not offer coverage for flood. The provincial government is supposed to pick up the tab for perils that cannot be insured privately.

Steve_

Just started raining again.

All I've got to say on the insurance issue is that I've been through a bigger natural disaster than this before and the lesson I learned from that is why I made sure when I moved to Calgary I was living outside the floodplain. The insurance industry (like every industry) is about making money, not helping you.

Most of the city is outside the floodplain, but a lot of the original parts of the city (basically pre-1960) are not. Which is why downtown and all the communites along the Bow and Elbow are underwater.

I can understand why people built houses and so on close to water back then, especially with less of a flood history to look back at. What I don't understand is why people buy 1950s-era homes along the Elbow River, knock them down and build a new house there. Prior to this flood that was the thing to do, loads of new custom houses have been built there in the last few years. I thought all the people doing that were crazy. All you have to do is look at the floodplain map to see why.

Pollyana

The horrendous floods in Queesnsland in 2010-11 caused huge insurance issues. The are wrangles still going on over whether flooding of properties was down to falling rain or rising rivers - one covered, the other not covered.
Longer term the fallout has been huge - many companies now have whole towns which are blacklisted, where they will not offer any flood insurance at all, while others have premiums so high that no-one can realistically afford them.

Heartbreaking to see the devastation happening in Canada as it happened here Stay safe and stay strong.

mandymoochops

A/C really glad to hear you and yours are safe and kudos to your daughter and you all for your efforts.

For those who remember Butch Cassidy, him and Mrs BC are also fine, though were evacuated from their home yesterday into a rental property they own which was also on the edge of an evacuation zone Frying pan / fire?????

nikki dreaming

I work for a property/casualty insurer and unfortunately overland flood causation is not covered in the majority of homeowner policies, why, I don't know, yes it may result in premium increase but sure people would buy it. However it is standard that it can be added as an endorsement to a commercial insurance policy!?

I hope everyone stays safe and that they get through this with government support, however having recently experienced this with clients in Newfoundland a couple of years back for hurricane igor in 2010 , there was a cap on amount paid by government that went no where near the cost to fix everything.

Some days I hate my job