The storms that hit southern Ontario and parts of Quebec on Saturday, May 21, caused over $875m in insured damage, according to initial estimates from CatIQ.
According to the firm, the damage in Ontario is estimated to be over $720m, while the storm caused an estimated $155m of damage in Quebec. This storm now ranks as the sixth largest in Canadian history in terms of insured losses – surpassing the Toronto flood of 2005.
Kim Donaldson, vice-president for Ontario at the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), said: “This was largely an insurable event and insurers have been on the ground since Day 1, working hard to help their customers throughout the entire claims process. And, insurers will be there until all claims from their policyholders have been processed.”
The powerful storm, described as a derecho, was far-reaching and impacted a densely populated corridor across southern Ontario and into Quebec. Close to 30,000 homes in Ontario and Quebec were without power for more than a week after the storm. Although hail and torrential rain accompanied the storm, wind caused most of the property damage.
As Reinsurance News reported at the time, Hydro Quebec said that 550,000 homes in the province lost power.
The Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s leading newspapers, wrote at the time that there had been ‘[…] massive damage to large swaths of the electrical grid’.
It added: “Across Ontario, utility companies were dealing with hundreds of power outages affecting more than 400,000 customers – about 170,000 of them in the Ottawa area. Over the provincial boundary, Hydro-Québec said the storm knocked out power for 550,000 customers from Gatineau to Quebec City at its peak. As of Sunday afternoon, there were close to 350,000 customers still cut off.”
