ESTEVAN - The hail storm that pelted the Estevan area in late June resulted in a lot of calls to Municipal Hail Insurance (MHI) from farmers who sustained damage to their crops.
MHI chief executive officer Rodney Schoettler said this year is the busiest they have been for this time of year in the past five years. As of Thursday morning, MHI had 1,632 claims submitted from across the province. Those numbers would not reflect any calls stemming from a series of storms that struck the southeast corner of the province on Sunday.
The bulk of the claims for MHI came on June 23 and 24, when hail blasted the Estevan area during the overnight hours. Of the 925 claims for those two days, approximately 350, or roughly 37 per cent, were from the Estevan reporting area, which includes RMs 1-5 and 31-35.
"If you look at our office, because of the way we handle claims and the service we provide, we probably get 200 phone calls per day, so we have a bit of a team here, like a call centre, that we let people file claims by telephone," said Schoettler. "We accept claims by fax and we accept claims by email, but we still get a lot of phone calls."
It takes about seven to 10 days to get the claim ready to go to an adjuster, who then heads out to the field.
"It's probably going to take them 14 days to get those claims adjusted," said Schoettler.
The highest volume of claims was in the area from Estevan to Midale.
"What I say is abnormal … is the volume of hail we got in that area," said Schoettler. "It hit that area a little harder than we'd be expecting."
In a normal year, MHI would receive roughly 800 claims by the end of June. This year there were 1,200, and hundreds more have come forward in July.
Farmers have been purchasing more coverage per acre this year, he said, which places more pressure on the dollar value. Instead of buying $300 per acre, they're going with $400 per acre, and he added a lot of companies have reached their capacity limits.
"It's been an industry where it's flourishing right now, I'd say. There's been a lot of demand for our product, which is a good thing, and then we've had a lot of early storms," said Schoettler.
He believes producers are buying more coverage due to rising input costs and the expense associated with growing the crop. Farmers will also think about whether they have a good or a bad crop.
"June had a lot of moisture in it, so that crop has a lot more potential than last year when it was a bit drier, so they're going to insure it for a little more. So, when people make a decision to buy hail insurance, the first thing [they ask] is what does it cost me to grow it, and then what does my opportunity cost based on how good of a crop I have?"
The late-June storm caused considerable damage in the city of Estevan as well as the hail struck homes and vehicles with the large hail.
