The average annual cost of property damage or loss due to severe weather has increased from approximately $ 400 million prior to 2009 to approximately $ 2 billion annually in recent years.
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It is likely that many communities in the Greater Vancouver area will take weeks to fully recover from the incessant heavy rains that hit the South Coast over the weekend.
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While the worst appeared to be over by mid-afternoon Monday as the blue sky slowly appeared, maintenance and engineering teams responded to dozens of calls for damage caused by high winds and numerous reports of flooding.
One of the most dramatic events in the region took place in English Bay when a barge was unleashed.
Vancouver travel photographer Ben Glassco was watching the storm from the window of his 17th-floor apartment when he noticed a barge floating on choppy water toward the Burrard Street Bridge.
“There was panic in my neighborhood,” said Glassco, who ran just in time to see the barge run aground on Sunset Beach. “He was heading for the Burrard Street Bridge. It was pretty close. “
The Coast Guard said a team from its Kitsilano base has been in the water near the barge to ensure safety at the site.
In South Vancouver, an unusual spectacle related to heavy rain occurred at the southern end of Angus Drive. A video on Twitter showed a waterspout shooting several feet into the air from a manhole cover.
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Jimmy Zammar, Vancouver’s urban watershed director, said that due to the city’s topography, when heavy rain falls, it flows into low-lying areas and increases pressure in storm sewers and sanitation pipes.
“That’s what you see happening in some places, like the Angus Street location,” he said. “Push through any opening that it can get out of. We see them from time to time. “
As of 7 a.m. Monday, Vancouver crews responded to reports of flooding at 46 locations.
Walker Adair, a Vancouver real estate agent, said Sunday that he watched through security cameras as water overflowed from sandbags and flooded a home he bought in Princeton this summer.
On Monday morning, from the ninth floor of a south-facing apartment building in Burnaby and Bidwell in English Bay, he saw furniture like plastic chairs flying from apartment yards. He went out to record a video and was struck when the wind blew chunks of Ikea tile from his own patio.
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“I’m a pretty laid-back person, but there’s been a lot of excitement and I’m nervous,” Adair said.
On the Sunshine Coast in Roberts Creek, resident Precious Kubot said it had been a terrifying night and day.
“The damage is quite severe. It’s crazy, ”Kubot said. “The rain was torrential all night, the sewers have overflowed on the road, there is a landslide on Beach Road, the entire lower road is washed away and there is no electricity.”
Nora Weber, a resident of Clayburn Village in Abbotsford, was at a friend’s birthday party in Vancouver on Sunday night when her tenant posted her dramatic video of water gushing like a river through the streets outside her home on the corner of Wright and Armstrong streets.
When he tried to drive home, the only open route was along Bateman Road. Soon she found herself partially submerged, driving through the water to the wheel wells, with no way to turn around.
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“It was terrifying. The ditches on both sides of the road were flooded. I knew I could drown in those ditches, ”said Weber, who stayed on the phone with his sister to ask for her support.
The train tracks that transport goods to and from the Port of Vancouver were closed by heavy rains and the resulting landslides. The closures threaten to further delay the transport of materials and crops at Canada’s largest port and compound global supply chain problems that have led to shortages and price spikes.
The Canadian Pacific Railway track was disrupted and is “affecting rail service in the region,” a spokesperson said in an email. A “washout” from heavy rains affected a track on the Canadian National Railroad, the railroad said in an advisory to customers.
Aaron Sutherland, vice president of the Insurance Canada Bureau, said that this year, the insurance industry is seeing a continued trend of increasing claims due to climate change.
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The average annual cost of property damage or loss due to severe weather has increased from approximately $ 400 million prior to 2009 to approximately $ 2 billion annually in recent years.
“This is the time to focus on life and safety and to make sure that affected people have the support they need,” he said. “With this event … it will be some time before we see the death toll, but it is clear from the images that we have a significant number of communities affected by floods and storms that we are seeing today and over the weekend.”
He said the standard home insurance policy covers fire and water damage when there is a burst pipe. Flood insurance is independent.
“About half of British Columbia’s have added flooding to their home insurance policy,” he said.
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He said flood insurance is available to about 95 percent of homeowners in BC.
“There are about five percent of homeowners who couldn’t get flood insurance even if they tried because they are in such high-risk areas that you just can’t create an affordable product for them,” he said.
People can call the office at 1-844-2ASK-IBC (1-844-227-5422) with any questions about insurance.
– with files from Joanne Lee-Young and Sarah Grochowski
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