Richelieu river flooding victims won’t get private insurance payments
About 3,000 homes have been flooded, with 1,000 people forced to leave, after Quebec’s Richelieu river flooded, the Montreal Gazette reports—but now, with waters dropping by three centimetres on Sunday, the waters are finally receding. Today and Tuesday, reductions of up to four centimetres are expected, but victims of flooding won’t get private insurance payments to repair their homes, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Spokesperson Jack Chardirdjian said that those who buy a home near a river should expect flooding, and if an event is predictable, insurance won’t cover it. “It’s like buying a home next to a railway track. You know the trains are going to go past,” he said.