November 2011 windstorms in Alberta cause $200-million worth of insured damage

Estimated insured damage caused by windstorms that hit southern Alberta in November amounts to at least $200 million, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) reports, citing a preliminary estimate reported by Property Claim Services Canada (PCS-Canada).
Data collected by PCS-Canada, a service that tracks insured losses arising from catastrophic events in Canada, confirms that thousands of claims have been filed for damage to homes, cars and businesses in the wake of the storm.
“Thankfully, there were no serious injuries, and insurance should cover most of the damage,” said Doug Noble, IBC vice president of Alberta. “There is no doubt that we are seeing more and more the impact of severe weather in Alberta.”
Over the past three years, Alberta insurers have paid out approximately $2 billion in damages resulting from five disasters.
Fires that destroyed much of Slave Lake in May of this year amounted to more than $700 million in insured damage, making it the second costliest insured disaster in Canadian history (after the ice storm that hit Quebec and Ontario in 1998, which cost over $1.8 billion).
A storm pummeling Calgary and parts of southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba with golf-ball-sized hail in Summer 2011 resulted in $185 million of insured damage.
In summer 2010, another storm in Alberta resulted in $500 million in insured damage, while in Summer 2009, deadly windstorms rolling across the province resulted in $360 million of insured damage.
“Following each of these disasters, insurers were there to help Albertans repair and recover,” said Noble.