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'It's going to be a lot': What will it cost to rebuild B.C. after major flooding?

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With properties still underwater and thousands of people still out of their homes, it's near impossible to estimate the true damage cost B.C. is facing after a major flooding emergency.

When asked about the repair bill on Friday, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth simply responded: “There is no estimate of what the total cost will be.”

“It’s going to be a lot, there’s no question about it," said Transportation Minister Rob Fleming

Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun said this week the cost of rebuilding his community could reach $1 billion, but that’s just one area of the province.

Thousands of insurance claims have already been filed. Rob de Pruis, a director of consumer and industry relations for the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), said more claims are being made everyday.

“At this point we just don’t know the size or extent of the damages,” de Pruis told CTV News. “This will be a pretty significant event. The insurance industry, we are considering this to be a catastrophic loss.”

It’s shaping up to be an expensive year for insurance claims following severe weather events in B.C. The IBC said there was $134 million in insured losses from windstorms, $78 million from the Lytton wildfire and $77 million from the White Rock Lake wildfire.

The cost of uninsured losses from the most recent flooding event will be significant, mostly because properties located on flood plains are not eligible for overland flooding insurance.

There’s also the cost of rebuilding key infrastructure routes, such as the Coquihalla Highway. Drone footage shows portions of the highway completely missing or crumbled into the river.

One engineering expert believes the province needs to invest in infrastructure upgrades that will withstand the impacts of climate change.

Slobodan Simonovic is a professor of engineering at Western University in London, Ont. He said decisions made now need to ensure infrastructure will last for the next 30 to 40 years.

“Climate change has to enter directly into the engineering design process,” Simonovic said. “The cost may be higher today if you take into consideration climate change, but now you have to compare that cost to the damage that right now B.C. is suffering.” 

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