'It was totally gone': Thousands of insurance claims filed in Sask. after summer storms
Jeff Andersen has lived in the Lumsden area for 14 years and he says he has never had a storm pass through like the one on July 22.
“I sort of looked at the shop, expecting maybe some trees to be down and the power to be out. I looked where the shop was and it was totally gone. All that was left was some of the contents that were inside of it,” Andersen told CTV.
“The electrical is ripped right out of the panel and everything like that, so I didn’t know if there was live wires or anything down there, I couldn’t see too much, but there was debris thrown everywhere. It was a steel-covered insulated shop. We had steel and wood and insulation up to 300 feet away.”
Andersen said there was plenty of other minor damage around the property such as a toppled calf shelter, but his house was fine, and all of his family, including cows and dogs, were safe.
Andersen said he had heard there was a storm heading his way, but he never expected it to be as big as it was.
“We got a text from a neighbour saying it was hailing like crazy and it was windy, and they had gone down to their crawl space because they were afraid of the wind and all that,” Andersen said.
“When I came home I wasn’t expecting that much, maybe some trees down and the power I had heard was out. Just shock when I got there.”
Andersen is in the process of filing an insurance claim for his shop, and he is not alone.
According to SGI there have been nearly 2,200 claims reported so far since the storm and another which occurred on July 27.
“It’s entirely possible that more claims will come in as people examine their property and understand that they may have enough damage to warrant making a claim with SGI,” Tyler McMurchy, manager of media relations with SGI said.
SGI said of the 2,190 claims, 1,562 were for vehicles, and 628 were for property damage.
“The vast majority of that was caused as a result of damage resulting from hail. On Thursday July 22 in the Foam Lake area we saw a large number of hail losses. We saw some golf ball-sized hail, and maybe in some places a little bigger than that,” McMurchy said.
Kyle Fougere, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), said the province experienced a low-pressure system that moved through the province on July 22, causing the storms..
“We saw some pretty wide-spread thunderstorms on that day. There was widespread wind reports extending all the way from Lloydminster which recorded 115 kilometres an hour, down to Regina which had 140 kilometre-an-hour gusts, and all the way up to Saskatoon with 96 kilometres per hour,” Fougere told CTV news.
“There was also localized flooding in Regina, and some very large hail was reported. About three hours to the east of Saskatoon in a place called Okla Saskatchewan, there was tennis ball hail which is 6.5 centimetre hail reported.”
On Tuesday the province saw another storm that brought more hail, wind, and damage.
“Kamsack Beach reported golf ball hail, and there was quite a bit of damage out of Pelly Saskatchewan with ping pong-sized hail that shattered windows and created a lot of damage in the area,” Fougere said.
Fougere said with some hot weather coming in the form of a high-pressure system this long weekend, Saskatchewan could expect to see some more storms after the holiday.
“When that ridge of high-pressure does break down as we go into next week we’ll have to be on the watch for severe thunderstorms then as well,” Fougere told CTV.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
'Sophisticated' cyberattacks detected on B.C. government networks, premier says
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Police handcuff man trying to enter Drake's Toronto mansion
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
Biden says he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to Israel if they launch major invasion of Rafah
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Canucks claw out 5-4 comeback win over Oilers in Game 1
Dakota Joshua had a goal and two assists and the Vancouver Canucks scored three third-period goals to claw out a 5-4 comeback victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Wednesday.
Nijjar murder suspect says he had Canadian study permit in immigration firm's video
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer agrees to settle more than 10K lawsuits over Zantac cancer risk: Bloomberg News
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec premier defends new museum on Quebecois nation after Indigenous criticism
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
U.S. presidential candidate RFK Jr. had a brain worm, has recovered, campaign says
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.