Residents call on Kenney for hail disaster relief

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — Over a week since arguably the largest natural disaster to affect Calgary, residents are asking for quick action from the provincial government.

In a letter addressed to Premier Jason Kenney — and also sent to numerous MLAs, Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Ward 5 Councillor George Chahal — people living in several northeast communities call for financial relief.

The storm is estimated to have damaged tens of thousands of homes and cars, with a price tag projected to reach a billion dollars.

While the province has said they will evaluate if the storm qualifies for relief, they also indicated that it may not be coming because insurance should be able to cover most of the damage.

But residents said that is not necessarily the case.

“Most insurance companies are only willing to cover 20% of damages due to depreciation and other “fine print” in their policies, plus they are charging extremely high deductibles,” said the letter.

The matter has been made worse by the fact the region was hit by a powerful storm in 2016, which caused deductibles to rise sharply.

“Most people were okay to pay the deductible and get on with their lives, this time around it is slightly different,” said Khalil Karbani, the main signatory on the letter.

“Now the insurance companies are depreciating our values of our roofs and windows and things like that.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has also made the situation more dire, as many residents had chosen to go with reduced or no coverage for some things because it was not affordable anymore, such as Karbani’s neighbour who left their car uninsured.

“Next thing, the hailstorm comes and now he has to look for $18,000 more, which is the value of the car, and now he has got no coverage.”

Others have gone down to third-party coverage, which may not always cover hail damage, and some people have not even been able to contact their insurance companies yet.

Kenney has visited the area, following a visit by NDP leader Rachel Notley and MLA Irfan Sabir, but Karbani added they have not heard from some other MLAs at all since the storm hit.

Councillor Chahal said during a press conference on Friday that the city will be having a conversation about how the province can assist with the situation, but also, they are still focusing on the immediate cleanup.

Karbani said the city placing garbage bins in the communities to assist is great but they will need some more help, especially if another storm hits.

“Without a roof,” he said, “I can’t survive because the next time we have a big hailstorm or even a big rainfall, we will get water seepage coming into the house, which is going to cause even more damage.”

Karbani said the whole problem is causing a lot of frustration in the community and hoping that insurance companies will be more lenient given the situation and that all the levels of government will collaborate to come to their aid.

“Guys, come on, bail us out. We have all been paying our insurance, our full deductibles and everything else. And now for them to turn around and say well, this is not covered and that is not covered, and there is depreciation on this and that, really kind of hurts us.”

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