Residents of the village of Cache Creek, BC are likely uninsured for incoming flood damage, warns the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC).
The statement comes as over 160 properties in the area were placed on evacuation alert for a third time this year. Another dozen properties were evacuated earlier this week after the nearby Bonaparte River threatened to overflow.
“It peaked in April and we thought that that was it, but then it came back and it peaked again in May, almost as high, and then in July it came back for a third time and peaked a little bit higher than the first two,” Emergency Operations Centre in Cache Creek spokesperson Wendy Coomber told Radio NL.
IBC explained that it is due to the area’s high flood risk that proper flood insurance could be out of reach for many locals.
“If you know a home is going to flood every five or 10 years, you really can’t create an affordable product for those folks,” IBC Pacific vice-president Aaron Sutherland told Radio NL. “And, therefore, many of the residents of Cache Creek, unfortunately, likely don’t have flood insurance for their home and will be forced to rely on government disaster assistance. And that’s quite limited.”
Sutherland added that the IBC continues to advocate for federal and provincial governments to create a national flood program, which would provide coverage to those who need it.
“That would ensure that all Canadians, regardless of where you live and the level of risk you face, have access to flood insurance for their home. So that when we see the challenges like we’re seeing in Cache Creek and other parts of the province today, people have more access to the financial resources they need,” the vice-president said.
