Insurance claims have been made over the past week following storms that brought hail, causing varying degrees of crop damage.
Ag Direct Hail Insurance is one of those companies that have been busy. Executive Vice President of Ag Direct Bruce Lowe says they’ve received about 150 claims over the last week – over 100 come from producers in Saskatchewan, another 40 in Alberta, and the remaining balance in Manitoba.
“Nowhere across Saskatchewan has been spared,” said Lowe, “You take this past weekend, we had some pretty heavy hits just east of Weyburn, late last week was the Mankota area, middle of last week we had some pretty heavy hits east of Moose Jaw going into Regina, and then we had a lot of heavy damage up in northern Saskatchewan as well, so it’s been relentless over the last week or two that’s for sure.”
The number of claims filed for this time of year is more compared to last year according to Lowe, but less than two years ago. Lowe sympathizes with farmers who are dealing with hail damage as harvest is starting to pick up.
“I feel bad for those hard working Prairies farmers that go out there day after day and work the crops and then to have a hail event happen. On behalf of all the member companies of the Canadian Crop Hail Association, we feel your pain, we’re out there and we’re doing the best we can, and we’ll get out and mop up your claims up and pay you fairly as soon as we can.”
Municipal Hail Insurance is another company that’s been active handling claims. In fact, “it’s been the busiest week of the year” according to Rodney Schoettler, CEO of Municipal Hail Insurance in an email to SaskAgToday Tuesday.
Between August 18 and August 25, 1,211 claims were made, covering 611,674 acres and growing. Schoettler also noted big storms from August 18 affected 100 thousand acres and storms from August 21 affected 350 thousand acres.
Below is a map highlighting where it hailed last week in the province.
