Although a cleanup following the passage of Hurricane Matthew’s remnants through the East Coast is under way, parts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia remain bogged by flood-related issues.
In Newfoundland, flooding was so severe that major thoroughfares and bridges across the province had to be closed off, cutting off 17 communities from the rest of the province.
CTV News reports that those communities will remain under state of emergency declarations as the roads are cleared for use once more.
Approximately 225 millimeters of rain fell over Cape Breton, NS, within a single day as the storm passed through the area; Cape Breton saw more rain that day than all of summer. Flooding in the region was so severe that sewers and septic systems backed up, basements flooded, cars were submerged, and even parts of the land eroded under some homes.
Nova Scotia Power told
CTV News that it would likely take until Friday for service to be fully restored in Cape Breton. An estimated 20,000 customers lack power in the area. Reportedly, the strong winds caused by the storm caused trees to topple on to power lines and cut off hydro service to about 144,000 homes.
Maritime Electric reported that it has almost finished restoring power to customers in Prince Edward Island. After the storm, up to 7,800 outages were recorded in the area. Fortunately, PEI avoided the worst of the storm with few flooding incidents.
Forecasts put the weather event’s damage at a million dollars’ worth of insurance claims, or even more.
Although homeowners in the affected areas are free to claim for water damage, policies are typically limited based on the type of water damage events they cover.
Water damage caused by a sewer backup or sump pump failure could be covered, for instance. Other causes of flooding may not be covered, depending on the insurer.
“If it’s seeping through the windows, that’s a case where it’s likely to be surface water and most basic home insurance policies don’t provide coverage for that type of event,” Sydney-based lawyer Liam Gillis told
CBC News.
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