Insurance industry losses for the flooding related to the remnants of Hurricane Debby that affected Ontario and Quebec between August 9th and 10th, 2024, is estimated to have reached CAD 2.817 billion, according to CatIQ, Canada’s insured loss and exposure indices provider.This marks CatIQ’s fourth loss estimate from the event, and compares to its third loss estimate of CAD 2.76 billion, which was issued 90 days after the event took place.CatIQ confirmed that this latest loss estimate covers property (both commercial and residential) and vehicle (motor) claims.“The tropical depression that became Hurricane Debby formed on 1 August 2024, passing over the western Caribbean and southeastern US before being caught up in a large atmospheric trough on 7 August.

This trough steered the now post-tropical cyclone toward the Great Lakes, and the remnant low brought significant rainfall to eastern Ontario and southern Quebec,” CatIQ said.Rainfall totals between August 8th and 10th reportedly topped 100mm across a large area extending from eastern Lake Ontario, through to Montreal, and along the St.Lawrence River towards Quebec City.

“Widespread flooding and extensive flood damage resulted, with the hardest-hit regions in southern Quebec seeing more than 200 mm of rainfall from the event,” CatIQ added.In addition, CatIQ has confirmed that it will release a fifth update on the market loss from the remnants of Debby, which will be made avaliable on August 8th, 2025, 12 months after the event end date.Caroline Floyd, Director at CatIQ, commented, “While Atlantic Canada is the more obvious target for tropical cyclone activity in Canada, southern Ontario and southern Quebec often see the impacts of remnant storms, many of which follow similar paths to Storm Debby.

Ushered up the eastern third of the US by the jet stream, these remnant cyclones funnel substantial atmospheric moisture into the Great Lakes – St.Lawrence River Basin.In fact, since 2010, the insured losses from other remnant tropical storms in Ontario and Quebec have totaled more than CAD 500 million.

“Prior to Debby, the largest tropical storm-related event for Quebec stemmed from the remnants of Storm Irene (2011), which at the time caused some CAD 101 million in insured losses.For comparison, the rainfall from Irene reached only 68 mm in Montreal, versus Debby’s 154 mm.” She continued: “The remnants of Hurricane Debby were especially impactful for residents of Quebec, where more than 75,000 claims for personal property damage were filed.The average personal property claim size was not all that different from the flooding event in southern Ontario in July 2024, but the number of claims filed vastly differs, with Storm Debby generating nearly four times the number of claims as the Toronto flash flooding.” which became the largest loss year for the country on record, exceeding the previous record of CAD 6.2 billion recorded in 2016..

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