Two presumed dead due to B.C. flooding, mudslide; river levels fall but 100s affected
VANCOUVER — Separate searches for two British Columbia men believed to have been swept away by mud or water have been scaled back to recovery efforts.
Searchers said Monday they couldn’t find any signs of a 76-year-old man from the community of Tappen after a mudslide tore through his lake shore home on Saturday.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Scott West identified the man as Roy Sharp and said the family was “understandably upset” by the news that the search has been reclassified from a rescue to a recovery operation.
He said the slide “moved the house from its foundation” and it remains “almost impossible” for crews to walk on the surface of the slide.
The slide on Saturday also cut off access to about 100 other homes in that area of the Shuswap. West said the mudflow blocking the road is anywhere between one and 2 1⁄2 metres deep, and the Ministry of Transportation is involved co-ordinating the excavation.
RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk also confirmed Monday that the recovery effort for Cache Creek fire Chief Clayton Cassidy has been scaled back but is continuing. Cassidy disappeared early Friday when he was investigating deteriorating conditions along Cache Creek.
The B.C. River Forecast Centre said water levels were dropping in most rivers and creeks that had been swollen by spring melt and recent heavy rains in the southern and central Interior.
The centre reported Monday that the Salmon River in the Shuswap region remained on flood watch, while all other flood watches and high streamflow advisories had been lifted.
The District of Lake Country in B.C.’s Okanagan has declared a state of local emergency, joining Kelowna, West Kelowna, the Fintry Delta and the Regional District of Central Okanagan to help address flooding.
Murky water prompted boil-water advisories for Vernon, Kimberley, Nelson and some parts of the Westbank First Nation.
The Central Okanagan Regional District expanded an evacuation order Monday for more than two dozen properties on Okanagan Indian Band property because of localized flooding.
An evacuation alert remained in effect in Fintry Delta for those living in 90 properties. Residents from more than a dozen homes in Kelowna were still under an evacuation order.
In the Nicola Valley south of Logan Lake, a precautionary evacuation alert remained in place for about 250 people over concerns that high water might have damaged the spillway of the Mamit Lake dam. Officials were assessing the structure on Monday. Flooding and slides began Friday after summer-like temperatures caused rapid snow melt, followed by a series of torrential downpours.
TORONTO — The majority of Canadian homeowners aren’t insured for flooding and could be left footing at least part of the bill after heavy rains in several areas across the country, experts say.
Craig Stewart, vice-president of federal affairs for the Insurance Bureau of Canada, estimates that only 10 to 15 per cent of Canadians have so-called “overland flood insurance,” which is offered as an add-on to insurance policies.
Stewart said that’s because it’s a fairly new product that wasn’t available prior to 2013, when severe flooding hit Toronto and Alberta.
“That was primarily because we did not have flood-risk maps developed for the whole country,” Stewart said. “The insurance industry needs to be able to quantify the risks so they can assess which premiums to charge which people. Up until then there was simply no risk mapping done to be able to support such policies.”
Heavy rains left several communities in Quebec and Ontario struggling with rising floodwaters over the weekend, while parts of New Brunswick and British Columbia also faced flooding.
Insurers started working on the overland flood insurance addon after the 2013 incidents, but it took time to roll the policies out. Stewart says the product has been available since late 2015.
The low uptake is likely due to the fact that most Canadians only interact with their insurance broker when the time comes to renew their policy, Stewart said.
“Most people are not aware that overland flood insurance is available,” Stewart said. “Therefore, unless they have been directly in a conversation with their broker or their agent at the time of renewal over the past year, they likely won’t have it.”
Stewart said most homeowners grappling with flood damage will be left relying on government assistance, which typically covers less than insurance.
“Insurance is meant to make you whole,” Stewart said.
That’s in contrast to government assistance, which will help compensate homeowners for their losses, but typically focuses on core essentials.
Jason Thistlethwaite, an assistant professor in the faculty of environment at the University of Waterloo, said many Canadians lack the information they need about flood risk.
For example, many Canadians think fire poses the biggest threat to their homes, when in fact flood damage is more common, Thistlethwaite said.
Thistlethwaite co-authored a study last year that surveyed 2,300 Canadians who live in highrisk flood areas. The majority of those polled — 70 per cent — said they had not been contacted by an insurance company about newly available overland flood insurance, he said.
The survey also indicated confusion on the part of respondents about what is and isn’t covered by insurance policies. The majority of those surveyed thought overland flooding was already covered by default under insurance policies, Thistlethwaite said.
He said governments should do more to help homeowners get the information they need to protect themselves from future floods. “We’re just looking at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to flooding because climate change is going to make the problem much worse in the future.”