Calgarians tally hail damage: Severe storm followed by rainfall warnings
Calgary, Canada - July 13, 2010 CBC News
Calgarians are spending time on hold with insurance brokers and filling out
claims one day
after an intense hailstorm damaged vehicles and
property.
Golf-ball sized hail pelted parts of the city on Monday afternoon,
denting vehicles and
even cracking windshields.
"We've got hundreds of dents, a couple spider cracks on the
windshield and the back
window is sitting in the back seat," said DJ
Kelly of his car.
Yuval Kordov found out on Tuesday that fixing the dents on his
customized Volvo and
"Yeah, this is my baby, and I'm a bit worried about it not seeming
new anymore but that's
life," he said.
The Dent Clinic in southeast Calgary has been getting a steady
stream of phone calls and
customers.
"The phones started ringing before the hail even stopped," said
owner Mark Armstrong.
While most residential policies cover hail damage, vehicle coverage
depends on each driver's plan, said Glen Labelle, an independent
insurance adjuster in Calgary.
Doug Noble, vice-president of the Alberta and North region for the
Insurance Bureau of Canada, said people should not delay in getting
a damage assessment.
Hail smashed about 90 per cent of the glass on the north side of the
rooftop greenhouses at the University of Calgary on Monday.
(Submitted by Derek McBurney)
"Probably better that they do it as soon as they possibly can,
recognizing that folks in the insurance business in Calgary and in
southern Alberta are going to be pretty busy right now," he said.
"The most important thing to do is to be patient because the problem
is there's going to be a lot of people reporting claims to their
agent or broker's office and it's going to take a while for that
process to get through to the insurance company and eventually to
the adjuster who's going to be handling that claim," advised
Labelle.
The worst hail storm in Canadian history — in terms of paid
insurance claims — was in Calgary in 1991.
That 30-minute storm resulted in about 62,000 claims of $237 million
for residential damage and another $105 million for vehicle damage.
A rainfall warning that began late Monday afternoon is still in
effect for much of central and southern Alberta including Airdrie,
Cochrane, Drumheller. Some areas have already seen 50 millimetres of
rain and another 40 to 60 mm is forecast to fall by Tuesday night,
said Environment Canada.
