Atmospheric River Flooding In British Columbia The Costliest Weather Event In Province’s History

It’s official — the massive flooding in southern British Columbia is the costliest severe weather event in the province’s history.

In a press release issued late Thursday by Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ) said the flooding is estimated to have caused $450 million in insured damage, according to preliminary estimates.

Other severe weather events in B.C. were much less costly from an insured loss standpoint. Caroline Floyd, assistant director of catastrophic loss analysis with CatIQ, told Canadian Underwriter Friday that these events included a December 2018 southern B.C. windstorm that knocked out power through Christmas and New Years for many people, a 2017 wildfire in the Williams Lake area and this year’s fire in Lytton. ‘Interesting to note — none of these events breached the $100 million insured loss mark on their own,’ Floyd said.

British Columbia has already seen a number of extreme weather events this year, including a severe wildfire season. Wildfires caused $155 million in insured damage across western Canada, while windstorms in January caused $134 million in insured loss across western Canada.

The severe flooding event began Nov. 13 with a series of ‘atmospheric rivers’ that brought unprecedented rain to southwest B.C. over a two-week period, IBC said in the press release.