Collapsed roofs, cars and commercial trucks abandoned on highways, downed power lines and declared states of emergency might not be enough to deem the weekend snowstorm that walloped parts of south-central Ontario a catastrophe.
But that doesn’t mean adjusters and insurers won’t see some claims in the meantime, experts tell Canadian Underwriter.
Plus, there are long-tail concerns for damages related to fast snowmelt or ice damming. And that’s what could lead to a Cat.
On Nov. 30, intense snow squalls blanketed parts of Ontario under a layer of impassable snow. The towns of Gravenhurst and Bracebridge, which are in the Muskoka region, both declared states of emergency due to the weekend snowfall.
Gravenhurst received over 140 cm of snow, and about 15,000 hydro customers in Muskoka were left without power.
Highway 11 was closed from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 due to whiteout conditions, and many cars were left abandoned on the roads.
“We’ve received reports of numerous transport trucks getting stuck on Highway 11 for up to 36 hours due to the excessive snow accumulation,” a CRU Adjusters spokesperson tells CU.
Since Saturday, Gravenhurst public works teams report clearing more than 50 trees that fell across roads.
“Downed hydro lines continue to hamper cleanup efforts as well,” the town said in its most recent update. “While we don’t have an exact count, there have been dozens of instances where hydro lines across roads have slowed our snow removal progress.”
Insurers and adjusters are reporting a slate of typical snowstorm-related claims.
“So far, we have seen property damage from [downed] trees and a building collapse. Once the power starts coming back on, we anticipate additional claims coming in for food spoilage,” Shannon Hoyt, ClaimsPro’s Central Canada vice president tells CU in an email. “We will deploy additional adjusters to the affected areas as needed and depending on road conditions.”
CRU’s spokesperson says they haven’t received “substantial damage reports…but we’ll continue to keep an eye on the situation.”
Snowstorms don’t often cause catastrophe-level damages, Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ) CEO Laura Twidle says. CatIQ’s methodology defines a catastrophe as an event causing more than $30 million in insured damage.
Further west, Alberta and other prairie provinces also received sizeable snowfalls in late November. But experts tell Canadian Underwriter they don’t anticipate it will trigger a Cat.
When catastrophes do occur from snowstorms in Canada, they usually arise from longer-tail impacts — not directly from the snowfall.
Roof collapses, ice damming, and fast snowmelt that can cause flooding are some examples of impacts that can arise later, depending on how fast or slowly accumulated snow melts.
Feature image by iStock.com/loops7
