Although Ontario has agreed to offer disaster relief to Windsor and Essex County residents affected by recent flooding, records from last year suggest that not a lot of homeowners will be able to qualify for the financial assistance.
Out of the 583 homeowners who applied for the program last September, only 122 claims were paid out, for a total of $665,656.43. The remaining 235 claims were denied after inspector assessments. Another 226 claims were deemed not eligible before any assessment was even conducted.
CBC reported that the number of residents reporting flooded basements to the city’s ‘311’ line increased steadily throughout the day yesterday. At about 3:45pm, the number of claims hit 2,688. That number could still increase further, the media company warned.
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Over 400 basements were flooded in Lakeshore and approximately 105 basements were flooded in Tecumseh, CBC additionally reported. Twenty basements in LaSalle were also reported to be flooded in.
On Wednesday, Mayor Drew Dilkens asked the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to determine whether the flooding – which affected almost 3,500 homes across the region – was considerable enough to authorize the Disaster Recovery Assistance program.
Minister Bill Mauro confirmed that he had spoken with the mayor, and said that a team should be on the ground in the next few days, or by next week.
“They will be waiting to get an inventory of data back from affected municipalities so when they do visit they’ll know where to go and what the parameters of the damage as provided by municipalities is,” Mauro said.
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