Flood Services Canada (www.FloodServices.ca), the Greater Toronto Area’s leading 24-hour emergency flood, fire, and smoke damage restoration response service team, is weighing in on the subject of spring flooding, which was a major topic at the recent Ontario Good Roads Conference.
The Ontario Good Roads Conference took place on February 22–25 in Toronto and featured a variety of keynote speakers and workshops regarding the topic of improving Ontario municipalities. This year’sconferencesincluded the mayors of Belleville and Tweed giving their opinion about the difficulty of getting disaster assistance when property owners in their areas were hit hard by the ice melt a year ago, which caused major flood damage. (Sources: “2015 Conference Promo,” Ontario Good Roads Conference web site; http://www.combinedconference.org/2015%20OGRA%20ROMA%20Combined%20Conference%20Promo.pdf, last accessed April 6, 2015; “Flooding funding on top ofpriority listat good roads conference,” CKWS Television web site, February 27, 2015; http://www.ckwstv.com/2015/02/27/flooding-funding-on-top-of-priority-list-at-good-roads-conference/.)
“It’s an issue property owners have no control over,” says Chad Vanvari, owner of Flood Services Canada. “As such, it becomes a matter of being able to manage the situation when it does occur, and part of that is having proper access to disaster assistance, which is why it’s not surprising this subject was a key point at the conference.”
Vanvariexplains that spring floods occur whenicefrom the winter begins melting with the beginning of the warm season, which usually takes place around March. According to Chris Scott, chief meteorologist for the Weather Network,althoughthe loads of ice from a frigid winter will take some time to melt, the right combination of warm temperatures and rain could make flooding a possibility. (Source: “Canada’s lousy winter about to become a spring of brutal weather,” Canada.com, March 3, 2015; http://o.canada.com/news/weather/canadas-lousy-winter-about-to-become-a-spring-of-brutal-weather.)
“Part of the concernfromeach of the mayors was the actual process for applying to the disaster relief fund, which requires localities to match funds to be eligible to receive disaster assistance,” he adds. ”The current system needs to be addressed and it can only be a good thing that leadersare actually speakingabout it.”
Vanvariobserves that with the Weather Network predicting below-average temperatures forMarch, which means delayedspring melts, homeowners and property owners need to be prepared by having a plan, including contact information for an emergency flood restoration company and an alternate place to stay should their homes become flooded.
“In the end, the ones that are left to suffer are the residents of these communities,” Vanvari concludes. “And it shouldn’t matter what size the municipality is; some kind of disaster relief should be available to everyone. That’s what we try to offer at Flood Services Canada.”
