Vanessa Big Eagle, a band councilor overseeing housing for the Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation, faced significant damage to her own residence due to severe weather conditions. She described the May winds as exceptionally intense, causing destruction to 23 out of 54 homes in her community located 160 kilometers southeast of Regina. Her own house suffered the most severe damage, with a substantial part of the roof blown off. Big Eagle has been in the process of filing insurance claims for the affected homes managed by the First Nation, with many still in need of repairs, leading one family to seek temporary accommodation in a hotel.
Recent data reveals a surge in insured losses in Saskatchewan attributed to severe weather incidents, potentially resulting in increased insurance premiums. Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. reported that Saskatchewan experienced the highest recorded dollar amount of insured losses from major weather events last year, totaling $450 million, the largest figure since the firm began data collection in 2008. Notably, extreme winds in June caused the most substantial insured loss recorded in the province at $240 million, followed by wildfires in the northern region the previous summer.
Laura Twidle, the president and CEO of Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc., emphasized the exceptional nature of the past two years in terms of severe weather events leading to significant insured losses. She highlighted that wildfires, despite being covered by insurance, posed severe challenges, particularly in the previous year, which witnessed unprecedented insured losses in Saskatchewan.
Jason Thistlethwaite, a professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, warned that the impact of rising insured losses could result in higher insurance premiums and reduced coverage, affecting even those whose properties remain untouched. He stressed the importance of shifting focus towards proactive measures to prevent property damage rather than solely relying on post-disaster recovery.
Repair companies in Saskatchewan, such as Leeway Mechanical Inc. and Fire & Flood, have reported an increase in demand for their services due to weather-related property damage. Leeway Mechanical Inc. owners Duane Lee and Allison Thompson noted a significant rise in repair requests, including fixing water damage and roofs following extreme weather events. Similarly, Fire & Flood operational manager Chris Kaban highlighted a surge in calls for basement flooding, attributing the rise in demand to the ongoing severe weather conditions in the region.
The escalating weather-related damages have led to a notable increase in the workforce of restoration companies like Fire & Flood, with the number of employees rising from 85 to 150 in the past few years. Kaban mentioned that the current weather patterns are reminiscent of severe storms experienced in the early ’90s, emphasizing the growing challenges posed by climate-related incidents in the region.