As thunderstorm season approaches the city officials of Windsor, Ontario say that the number of residents making claims against the city for flooding damage is at its lowest for the past 5 years.
In 2010, the city received 314 claims for damage from sewer flooding. In 2015, there were only 17 claims. There was a slight increase in 2013, but the trend has generally been downward.
"I wouldn't say we've solved basement flooding by any stretch of the imagination," city engineer Mark Winterton said. "But I'll say we've made great progress towards it."
"This is a multi-year multimillion dollar complex issue that we're dealing with. What we're trying to do is take multi-pronged approach with different issues," he added.
Several Windsor neighbourhoods were very flood-prone, especially during big storms. According to the city government, the reduced number of emergency calls and insurance claims signify that the city’s anti-flood strategy is effective.
The success was credited to downspout disconnect programs, flow monitoring, closed-circuit television monitoring as well as better sewer maintenance and repairs.
Despite the positive trends in fewer insurance claims, the city is actually paying out more for insurance claims. In 2010, the city paid out approximately C$1.5m in insurance claims. But in 2015, the figure almost doubled at C$2.7m
According to city solicitor Shelby Askin-Hager: "The cost of each claim is going going up, the amount of claims has stayed relatively static.
"Sometimes we see a bit of a blip, an unusual weather event or a really hard winter, those types of things usually give rise to a little spurt of claims."
In 2015, a total of 360 insurance claims were filed against the city.
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