Historic flooding in Nova Scotia last month caused more than $170 million in insured damages, an initial estimate from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. shows.
Severe thunderstorms in July dumped more than 250 millimetres of rain on the hardest hit parts of the province, causing damage to roads, homes and bridges while killing four people.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada created a separate web page called Nova Scotia Floods to help people understand insurance coverage and the various stages of the claim process.
Craig Stewart, the vice president of climate change at IBC, says over 1.5-million households in Canada remain highly exposed to flooding and don’t have access to flood insurance.
IBC says insured weather damages in Canada routinely exceed $2 billion annually, with water damages responsible for most of the losses.
Stewart says IBC is advocating for investments in climate adaptation and asking the federal government to work on reducing risks Canadians face due to extreme weather.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2023.