Cleanup continues after Regina thunderstorm

Calls have been flooding into SGI Canada since a thunderstorm rolled into the Regina area Saturday.

Jeremy Pilon, a communications consultant with SGI, said that on the auto side, there have been 28 claims so far.

“About half of those are for flooding, the other half are for some hail damage that we’ve seen,” he said Monday. “On the property side, we’re actually seeing quite a bit more. There were 54 claims that came out of this storm, about 47 of those related to water.”

All of the numbers were as of noon Monday and SGI believes the total could go up to around the 100 mark.

Pilon said people don’t have to wait until their claim is active to start the cleanup process.

“Just make sure you’re taking really good records, so take photos of anything you throw away, keep receipts of anything you need to buy to do the cleanup, and keep track of your hours so that we can include that all as a part of your claim settlement,” he said.

According to Pilon, the first step should be getting a claim in so an adviser can recommend the next steps.

He also reminded people that their homes have a lot of flood prevention built in.

“Even if you didn’t get flooded this past weekend, you never know what the next rainstorm will bring to your property,” Pilon said.

“Make sure that your downspouts are letting out well away from your foundation — at least six feet away from your foundation. Make sure the landscaping is graded away from your house so that the water drains away, and check your sump pump in the basement and make sure it’s running,” he said.

Restoration companies also seeing more calls

Only a few hours after the Saskatchewan Roughriders game Saturday, Restorex started getting calls for cleanup.

Mike Payne, the company’s sales and marketing manager, said most of these came from commercial and industrial businesses.

As of Monday afternoon, Restorex was sitting at around 80 calls. Payne said most of the calls were from sewer backups.

“What’s happening is the storm lines just can’t handle the amount of water that came, so basically it backs up in people’s basements or in people’s properties,” Payne said.

That could include coming up through showers, toilets and sewer lines.

“What we’re seeing in commercial properties is their roof drains aren’t cleared or there’s debris on the roof and those roof drains basically get plugged, so the roof basically becomes a swimming pool,” he said.

Restorex is also seeing the water cause overland flooding coming in through window wells.

Payne said the number of calls the company is seeing right now is more typical in July and August.

“We don’t typically see that amount of rain or that sort of strong storm come through and accumulate that sort of rainfall,” he said.

But it didn’t catch workers off guard.

“We’re set up to handle these sorts of events, but like anything, you can’t help everybody at the exact same moment that they want you to help,” Payne said.

He is also asking for patience.

“(Staff) are all trying their best to get to everybody as soon as possible,” Payne said.