Atlantic Canada “back to normal” after weekend storm
The snowstorm left thousands without power, damaged property and shut down schools.
Suzanne Sharma on November 1, 2011
The powerful storm damaged property and caused significant power outages in eastern Canada. Schools on Monday, October 31 were also closed.
Most of the power outages were in Nova Scotia, where thousands of customers were without power after strong winds brought down tree limbs and power lines.
By Tuesday morning, however, everything was back to normal, according to Grant King from Dartmouth, NS-based Crawford & Company.
“High winds and trees on power lines caused power outages at various locations across Nova Scotia, with approximately 34,000 outages of varying durations occurring,” he told Canadian Insurance Top Broker.
In terms of overall damage, storm surges caused some flooding and road washouts along coastal areas in Nova Scotia. The same surges caused some boats to break from moorings at a Sydney, Nova Scotia yacht club, according to King.
Stephen Halsall, broker at Halsall Insurance Ltd., added snow melted almost as soon as it hit the ground in Saint John, NB. However, further away from the coast there was about 1-3cm of snow, which resulted in some minor fender bender accidents.
Halsall told Canadian Insurance Top Broker they had only a single claim filed in the office—a client who slid off the road in the Moncton-area, but there were no injuries and minimal damage.
“There was an accident in which two people died in the Rogersville area (near Miramichi),” he said. “There were sporadic power outages, mostly for a few hours, affecting some homeowners but [Saint John] experienced no problems in our immediate area. Rothesay had some sporadic outages due to tree branches on the lines.”
Nothing of significance occurred in PEI or NL.
“Overall from a claims perspective, [this was] not a significant event to date, but it was nasty while it lasted,” said King.
In the US, however, Kinetic Analysis estimates losses could be between $1 billion and $3 billion, but it is still too early to tell. The snowstorm caused numerous property and auto claims in New York, New Jersey, Conneticut and Massachusetts.
With files from The Canadian Press
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