N.S. officials say they're bracing for hurricane season
Fall storm season approaching as some households still recovering from floods, wildfires
Officials say it's too soon to tell whether tropical storm Franklin will hit Nova Scotia, but they're urging residents to prepare for hurricane season in the wake of other chaotic weather events that have devastated parts of the province this year.
John Lohr, the minister responsible for the Emergency Management Office (EMO) and Municipal Affairs, said people should discuss what they'd need during an evacuation.
"If there's anything we've learned this year, emergencies can happen quickly," he said at a Thursday afternoon press conference in Halifax.
He said households should have several days worth of supplies on hand and he encouraged people to think about how to prepare their properties. That includes trimming branches, emptying spouts and clearing drains.
Bob Robichaud, an Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist, said it's expected to be a "busy" season, and Hurricane Fiona, which made landfall in Nova Scotia last September as a post-tropical storm, showed it only takes one storm to cause damage.
Franklin is about 1,200 kilometres south of Bermuda. Robichaud said most models predict the storm's centre will stay south of the Maritimes, but its path will become clearer next week.
"We're not necessarily looking at another Fiona-type scenario. Most of the models don't have the storm that strong by the time it gets here. But any storm this time of year is one we have to watch very closely," he said.
Robichaud said any storm would be in addition to the "tremendous amount of rain" that has fallen in Nova Scotia since early June — between 700-800 millimetres compared to roughly 250 millimetres during the same period last year.
"We know the ground is wet, we know that everything is saturated. A hurricane bringing a lot of rainfall obviously is not something that we want," he told reporters in Halifax.
The hurricane season is approaching while some households are still recovering from damage related to the wildfires and floods earlier this year.
On Thursday, the Insurance Bureau of Canada said claims stemming from the destructive flooding last month in Nova Scotia amount to $170 million.
That number does not capture people who did not have insurance to cover the cost of repairs. Overland flooding or damage caused by storm surges is often not included in insurance packages.
Graham Little, interim vice-president Atlantic of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said property owners need to be familiar with what their policies cover and what they exclude.
During Fiona, he said much of the damage was caused by high winds. Typically, home insurance covers repairs when water gets into a home if a roof is damaged. But heavy rains pose different risks.
"You may have seen water intrude a home in other ways, either up through the foundation, which isn't always very typically covered, or in through, you know, windows or doors or things like that — which would only be covered if those were sort of specifically named insured risks," Little said.
The province is offering up to $200,000 per household to cover uninsurable losses related to the July flooding. So far, there have been 300 applications for disaster assistance with more coming in, said Heather Fairbairn, an EMO communications advisor.
She said processing the applications can take months since an adjuster has to survey the damage in every eligible claim.
In the cases where insurance companies cover the costs, getting a quote from an insurance adjuster after a weather event is fairly straightforward, Little said. It's getting the work completed that might be more challenging — particularly with many regions in the country dealing with catastrophic weather events.
"It has been difficult to make sure that there are, you know, qualified folks to take on those repairs. Especially when they're more widespread like Fiona," he said. "The availability of labour will certainly be an issue to watch."
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