June’s hot, dry weather that followed the wet spring from hell allowed farmers in Manitoba’s Red River Valley to plant most of their fields by crop insurance deadlines.
“It’s not very often you get a solid month where you can seed every day,” said crop insurance spokesperson Brian Halstead.
“It’s basically 99 percent seeded,” he said, adding he’ll know final numbers in a couple of weeks.
Most farmers in the Red River Valley were not insured, but took advantage of a five-day extension on crop insurance deadlines offered by the Manitoba government in early June.
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Now farmers are starting to turn their attention to replacing and rebuilding what was damaged by flood waters.
The Mennonite Disaster Service is organizing volunteer plum-bers, carpenters and electricians to help those who can’t afford private contractors.
Joe Masi, spokesperson for the Emergency Management Organization, said 41 inspectors are finishing cataloguing the damages for 3,300 claims for government disaster assistance.
Millions in cash advances
On June 30, 160 insurance adjusters, some from out of the province,were to start putting a price on the claims. By July 15, Masi hopes to be able to send letters to the victims stating how much financial assistance they will get. So far, he said, the province has handed out 1,408 cash advances on claims worth a total of $3.5 million.
Masi said about 200 homes in the valley were structurally damaged by flood waters. About 40 of the homes may be written off.
Farmers are eligible for up to $100,000 for their homes and $100,000 for their farm operations to cover damages, with a 20 percent deductible. The province will waive the deductible for homes with more than $125,000 damage.
The Red Cross has collected about $13 million to help victims with costs beyond government assistance.
And the Manitoba Farm Flood Relief Fund has about $200,000 in its coffers to help farmers badly hurt by the flood.
Marcel Hacault, a farmer who chairs the board of directors for the fund, said the money can’t be distributed until governments release final details of how they will help farmers.
Farmers are unclear about whether production losses will be covered, such as those faced by dairy farmers who had to move herds out of the region. And there are a lot of grey areas in assistance programs already announced, Hacault said.
Hacault, a vice-president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said the lobby group has been knocking on doors and placing phone calls, trying to get concrete information from the provincial government.
“Basically, they’ve shut us out,” he said. “The government has decided not to meet with producers to find out how to meet their needs and address their losses.”
Hacault said valley farmers are frustrated. One farmer from Letellier, Man. who was hit hard by the flood, calls him regularly to ask for advice: Should he move his house? Fix it? Build up the dike around his yard?
Hacault doesn’t know. But he hopes the government will soon have the answers.
