High Water and Flood Damage – Are You Affected?
High Water and Flood Damage – Are You Affected?
In recent weeks heavy precipitation coupled with significant snowmelt has created high water and flood conditions in Oliver Paipoonge. Due to these events some property owners may have sustained property damage.
The Municipality would like to receive information including photos from property owners demonstrating damages their properties have sustained due to the high water and flood conditions. There are two reasons for that.
The first reason is to supply information to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. The Province of Ontario offers the Disaster Recovery Assistance for Ontarians (DRAO) program to help recover costs after a natural disaster. For applications to DRAO to be considered in certain areas the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has to activate the program for those areas. Getting an area activated starts with a municipality providing information on damages caused by a natural disaster to the Ministry. The DRAO program website says the program is not meant to be a replacement for property insurance, insurance payments are deducted from eligible costs and homeowners with more than $275,000 in insurance coverage are not likely to be eligible under the program. For more information below is a link to the DRAO.
www.ontario.ca/page/apply-disaster-recovery-assistance
The second reason is to inform the Municipality’s efforts in infrastructure planning and emergency response planning. While the Municipality already has information on specific areas more prone to high water and flood conditions, e.g., floodplain mapping, it is worthwhile to gather more data. As the current events demonstrate, roads, driveways, culverts and other infrastructure can be damaged or even destroyed by high water and flood conditions. Having information on impacts experienced or being experienced in the Municipality will help us in planning future infrastructure. That information also will be useful for emergency response planning since it may help to indicate where problems due to high water and flood conditions are likely to occur.
The Municipality is looking for written information and photos. Please indicate the location, e.g., civic address. Telephone calls are discouraged. Please send your information and photos to the email address below. You may also mail or bring your information and photos to the municipal office.
Thank you.
