What claims adjusters are seeing from the Manitoba storm

An “unprecedented” snowstorm that resulted in a provincial state of emergency in Manitoba and left more than 100,000 hydro customers without power does not seem to be a significant event so far from a claims perspective.

In the past week, a mix of heavy rain and snow fell across the southern and southeastern portions of the province, downing power lines and tree limbs. By Monday morning, between 50 and 100 mm of precipitation had fallen, causing some localized overland flooding, the provincial government reported. “In some areas, we have more lines and poles down than standing,” Manitoba Hydro CEO Jay Grewal told Canadian Press Sunday.

Crews cleanup after a snow storm which hit parts of Manitoba Thursday and Friday in Winnipeg on Sunday, October 13, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Manitoba Hydro estimates that more than 2,000 of the iconic wooden poles that run along highways have been knocked down or damaged. One of the hardest-hit areas was Portage la Prairie, where crews have to fix not only the transmission lines, but also their foundations.

“It was significant enough for that community, but it’s not enough to call it a catastrophic event from an industry standpoint,” Kumar Sivakumaran, vice president of national operations at ClaimsPro, told Canadian Underwriter Wednesday.

“From a claims standpoint, I would say it’s very limited,” he said. “We are seeing some flooded basements, but the majority of our losses are hydro lines and trees – mainly trees on insureds’ properties.”

There have been instances of fences being blown off, said Sivakumaran, adding that more food spoilage claims may also come in. From a commercial lines standpoint, “we’re not really seeing much of the business interruption losses coming through. Very limited commercial losses.”

While claims are continuing to come in, it’s “hard to say if people are just getting around to reporting if they have been dealing with power outages,” said Grant Rerie, Manitoba regional manager with Kernaghan Adjusters.

“We really haven’t seen much out of this,” Rerie said Tuesday. “I don’t really think there was a lot of property damage.” He added that a lot of adjusting was likely being done by in-house staff adjusters.

Most of the snow is now gone and temperatures have been mild, Rerie said, so there has been no freezing of buildings.