Hail Insurance companies have been busy since a weather event August 20 traversed through parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Weather modelling from Ag Direct Hail Insurance shows a storm system in the Brooks, Alberta area then making its way to the Eston and Kindersley areas of west-central Saskatchewan and across the northern grain belt from north of Saskatoon all the way to western Manitoba.
Executive Vice-President of Ag Direct Hail Bruce Lowe said as of Tuesday morning, 110 claims have been submitted and expects more in the days ahead. Of those, 65 are from Saskatchewan, 35 from Alberta, and 10 from Manitoba.
CEO of Municipal Hail Insurance Rodney Schoettler says as of Monday afternoon, 700 claims have been received, covering 1,943 quarters of land or 285,000 acres in 85 Rural Municipalities. He expects 375,000 to 400,000 acres to be affected.
"So it's going to be a big day." said Schoettler, though it wouldn't be the biggest one as a weather event on August 21, 2024 affected 440,000 acres.
Reports of hail range in size from a Loonie up to a baseball.
Lowe sympathizes with impacted producers as the aftermath comes at the start of harvest and admired their resilience.
"I don't know how they keep their sense of humour in situations like this. I've actually talked to probably well over 50 of our customers about the storm and they're so resilient. It's unbelievable when they can just kind of say, 'Hey, I've been at this a long time. I've seen this before. I'm probably gonna see it again.' But some were on the peripheral of it and they feel fortunate, and then some just lost their entire crop. It's been mowed down and there's really nothing left, which is pretty devastating." said Lowe.
A message to producers from Schoettler is patience as they work through the claims made last week as well as ones from a weather event on August 13 that affected between 250,000 and 300,000 acres.
"If we end up with the 400,000 acres, our best estimate of this one is it's going to be three to six weeks. Some people will get done quicker, but a lot of them will be in that three to six week range…but we'll get them done, everybody will get adjusted, everybody will get paid, and it'll all be good at the end of the day."
