HALIFAX – There’s still water in the parking lot of Richard Clarke’s autobody shop in Waverley, N.S., but things are slowly getting back to normal after heavy rainfall caused flooding in the area last week.
His shop was one of six businesses that got flooded within a two-kilometre stretch in Waverley.
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Clarke said he has no idea yet what the flood will end up costing him, but he does know he needs to replace his furnaces — and he’s lost three days of work.
“You got to get the work done to get the money in, to pay the bills, so it set us back a little bit,” he said.
Insurance won’t help Clarke recover from the flood. In Nova Scotia, there are a lot of grey areas when it comes to coverage. Some commercial properties can be insured, but there is no flood insurance for residential homes, leaving many people on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.
“Overland water rising above the water table is not covered,” said Gina McFeteridge, an insurance broker. “However, sewer backup is covered, so that’s when there’s an actual blockage in your sewer, your septic, or lines entering the house, causing water or in some case sewage to back up into your home.”
According to McFeteridge, there has been an increasing number of floods in the past few years.
“Water is now outpacing fire as the number 1 cause of insured loss in Canada,” she said. “As the number of water claims increases, the need for education on what is covered and what is not covered has gone up as well.”
Barry Dalrymple, the councillor for Waverley, is hoping the provincial government will help residents and businesses that suffered damages from the flood.
“I think this is a storm of that kind of magnitude where somebody should step in and help these people,” he said.
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