Water water everywhere
Source: globalnews.ca
At the time of writing reports are coming in that there is record flooding in southern Alberta, Canada. Already this has caused extensive damage and sadly cost four people their lives.
The flood event follows a period of prolonged and excessive rainfall in the region. It has been reported that more than 100,000 residents have been evacuated due to the dangerous flood conditions, with around 75,000 of those residents from the City of Calgary.
The rescue efforts have been enormous with nearly 1,000 residents having to be rescued by either the air or boat from surrounding communities.
In addition, the early reports state that widespread flood damage and power outages have affected a great portion of southern Alberta. This of course is not the first time with floods in 2012 and 2005 being the most recent.
A state of emergency remains in effect. Energy interests in Alberta have been disrupted. At this early stag, the Bank of Montreal estimates economic losses on the order of CAD 3-5 Billion. While not wishing to insult anyone, my experience suggests that you should double the initial estimates.
If you put this on top of the flooding in the US with both the Mississippi and ex Hurricane Sandy, and even more recent floods, flooding in Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Asia, particularly Thailand and of course the past couple of years of flooding in Australia which continues to this day, it is clear that the cost to insurers and reinsurers from the peril of flood is an issue. A newly published paper stated that Australia had a record 123 severe weather events during the 90 days of last summer.
It is all well and good to blame insurers for the non affordability of insurance but at some stage, someone has to understand that flood mitigation has to be the long term answer.
I recently looked at some information on a massive development in the Hunter Valley where something like 130,000 homes were to be built. Anyone with Google Earth can see that a lot of this land is in a flood plain. This enrages me as it means that government and the developers involved are just setting families, often those in the community who can least afford it to fail.
This is not the only council to do this now, in the past or into the future. It does not mean it is right!
With all this pressure on the affordability of insurance why oh why would any government continue to have fire service levy and stamp duty on insurance. None of this makes sense but who can we turn to to talk to let alone fix the problem.
If I were King of Insurance for one day, I would degree that no insurer offer insurance in any new development that is on a flood plain. I would “red line” such areas so that finance companies, the potential residents and government all know that this is a high risk and it is not a case of “if” but “when” and that living there carries with it great personal risk.
When will we get a government at any level that really is there for the benefit of the community? I have been a critic to the carbon tax as the proceeds are not being put to research into alternative fuel or the like. If we are to keep the tax, then would it not be wise to put some of it into flood mitigation which would benefit the economy and the communities under constant threat.