Producers continue to work with insurance companies and make repairs to their farms following last May’s wind storm
RUSSELL, Ont. — Farm damage inflicted by a violent storm last May in eastern Ontario lingers nine months later.
In less than three minutes on May 21, violent winds with tornado-level gusts, known as a derecho, tore through the communities of Carlsbad Springs, Navan, Vars and Sarsfield just east of Ottawa.
It levelled trees, blew roofs and sometimes whole buildings away, collapsed walls, terrified residents and livestock, destroyed machinery, knocked down barns and silos, blew away bins, and downed power lines, transmission towers, internet towers and solar panels. Coverall structures lost their roofs and a poultry farm’s new shed and feed bins were ruined. Sheet metal and splintered wood hung in trees, and all that was left of one new machine shed was the concrete pad and the combine sitting on it.
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Emergency crews from electricity providers and the municipality removed the most dangerous obstacles from roads and restored power over a period of several days. People nearby who were not as hard hit turned out with chainsaws and tractors to clear debris from homes and driveways, and volunteers with trailers helped move traumatized livestock.
Team Rubicon, an international disaster response organization, provided chainsaw gangs. An ad hoc organization, Navan Helping Hands, supplied food and communications.
After the first rush, farmers were left to wade through the insurance process, clean up and rebuild during the middle of spring work. Insurance adjusters showed up over the next few weeks, but the process proved confusing for many people, regardless of insurer.
Dave Spence, who lost roofs, most of a barn, machinery, a solar panel, sheds, and much of his maple forest said he had trouble making contact and getting insurers to return his calls.
“Another guy took pictures — didn’t want mine. A restoration company came out and said they don’t fix barns. So why were they there?”
Spence was also shocked by differences in quotes of up to $100,000, and the cleanup was endless. Nails, boards and pieces of steel roofs had littered his pasture. He had an option to take a payout and arrange repairs himself, so even though Spence still did not know how much his payout would be, he eventually hired someone local, who was already booked up for months but who told Spence what to get ready.
“Every damn day we’re fixing something,” said Spence.
Wendell Watson said his machine shed blew away and he’s using tarps over equipment. His neighbours were in the same situation, unable to finish their cropping and worried about exposed hay turning hot.
Wyatt McWilliams, who is blind, was working in his barn when the storm hit. Immediately after his son called to check on him, McWilliams knew the roof was gone.
“I could feel the rain.”
A key feature of insurance is mitigating losses. For farmers who couldn’t get a crop in, whose hay is rained on because the hay shed is gone, whose cattle did not survive being moved, whose equipment was exposed to a wet summer, fall, then winter, losses have mounted and continue climbing.
One of the worst hit was Brabantdale Farms with damage amounting to several million dollars. Co-owner Chris Nooyen reported getting an estimate from a company that their insurer chose because it was cheapest.
“It was half the price of experienced barn builders,” he said. “We knew that wasn’t in line with reality.”
Worse, they didn’t receive that information until two days before Christmas.
“We have to pay premiums on time. That file sat on a desk for seven months.”
Then on Feb. 6, more than eight months later, the construction company filed for bankruptcy.
“We’re back to square one,” said Nooyen. “I don’t know how many people have lost the deposits paid already.”
He also worried about losing his dairy quota. His cattle are in other barns, which is only allowed for 18 months under supply management rules. His insurance policy states claims must be settled before the one-year anniversary — also keeping him awake at night.
Chris McWilliams received his insurance quote late in the fall. Although later than it should have been, he now has it and has ordered a barn for spring.
Payouts can present another problem. Spence’s accountant told him insurance proceeds received in 2022 would become taxable income if not spent until 2023, without the expenses offsetting the income.
Adding insult to injury, at the end of September the Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing told local Conservative MPP Stephane Sarrazin that the area did not qualify for disaster assistance funding.
Sarrazin told Ottawa City Councillor Catherine Kitts, who then told her constituents. Sarrazin, Kitts and other politicians, including Liberal MP Francis Drouin, all asked the province to activate emergency funding but it was rejected, although itwas activated in Uxbridge, a community north of Toronto that suffered similar damage.
Sarrazin said the minister felt insurance should cover the losses, and the ministry said they sent staff that assessed the damage.
In spite of people being inside collapsing buildings, flipped in vehicles, or struck with flying debris, no one was killed. The trauma remains however, especially in the elderly, who worked all their lives only to see the work blown away.
Many residents reported their children are now afraid when the sky darkens or the wind comes up.
