‘Unprecedented’ destruction: Ontario sees $1B in insured damage from summer floods

Summer 2024 will go down as one of the costliest summers for flooding in Ontario’s history.

In fact, this past summer sits just behind 2013 as the most expensive with the province seeing more than $1 billion in insured damage from floods, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) says.

“Ontarians have been hit hard by flooding this year, and the damage we’ve seen is unprecedented,” said the IBC’s Amanda Dean, vice-president in Ontario and Atlantic Canada.

“The emotional distress that this summer’s floods have caused thousands of Ontario residents cannot be overlooked.”

Mid-way through August, Global News meteorologist Ross Hull said many in the province, especially in the Greater Toronto Area, we’re already experiencing the wettest summer ever.

However, two storms stood out from the pack.

2:32 Toronto neighbourhood fears rainfall after 2 summer floods

In July, a flash-flooding event that resulted in partial shutdown of Toronto’s Don Valley Expressway caused more than $940 million in insured damage.

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Two days of heavy rainfall and thunderstorms on Aug. 17 and 18 led to significant flood damage in Mississauga, Etobicoke and other parts of the Greater Toronto Area. The IBC said Wednesday that event resulted in more than $100 million in insured damage.

In addition, a tornado was confirmed to have touched down and caused damage to property in Ayr, Ont., that same weekend.

Last month, the IBC said summer 2024 was the most destructive season in Canadian history for insured losses due to severe weather.

It only took two months – July and August – for that declaration to be made; extreme weather events during that time pushed the 2024 year-to-date tally for insured damage to more than $7.7 billion.

2:29 Flood insurance delays frustrate Toronto-area homeowner

By comparison, insurers paid out an average of $701 million in claims annually for severe weather losses from 2001 to 2010. Insured losses in 2024 are now valued at more than 10 times that number.

“Canada has not done enough to prepare,” said Craig Stewart, vice president of climate change and federal issues with the IBC, in a news release Wednesday.

“Governments must work together to plan a path forward that better protects communities and families across the country, and to avert an insurability crisis as millions of new homes are built. This is a whole-of-society challenge and requires all leaders and stakeholders to come together to develop a national action plan to ensure Canada is better protected.”