Major flooding on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland from December 8-12, 2014 has caused property and content damages. As a result of the damages sustained from this event, provincial Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) has been authorized for qualifying claimants, such as home owners, residential tenants, small business owners, farmers, charitable organizations and local government bodies, who were unable to obtain insurance to cover these disaster-related losses. Disaster Financial Assistance has been authorized for the Alberni Clayoquot Regional District, Tseshaht First Nation, Hupacasath First Nation and the City of Port Alberni.
Potential applicants should first check with their insurance agent to determine if their current insurance policy provides coverage for the resulting damage. Depending on the circumstances, businesses and farmers may have been able to obtain commercial insurance for certain losses. As part of the DFA qualification process, businesses, farmers and charitable/volunteer organizations will need to provide a letter from their insurer indicating that they could not have purchased insurance to cover these disaster-related losses.
Information about Disaster Financial Assistance is available on the DFA web site at http://www.embc.gov.bc.ca/em/dfa_claims/dfa.html.
There you will find the DFA Application Form, ‘Disaster Financial Assistance Guidelines for Private Sector’ and ‘One Step at a time – A Guide to Disaster Recovery’.
If you meet the criteria, you are encouraged to submit your application as soon as possible so that the damage assessment can be completed promptly, the deadline date for Emergency Management BC (EMBC) to receive the form is March 12, 2015.
The Regional District will assist residents by emailing or faxing the completed application to EMBC. Once an application is received by EMBC, EMBC contracted evaluators will contact applicants to explain the DFA program requirements and schedule a visit.
For more information, contact the regional district at 250-720-2700.