Message From Emergency Management BC:

“Major flooding on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland from December 8-12, 2014 has caused property and content damages. As a result of the damages sustained from this event, provincial Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) has been authorized for qualifying claimants, such as home owners, residential tenants, small business owners, farmers, charitable organizations and local government bodies, who were unable to obtain insurance to cover these disaster-related losses.

Disaster Financial Assistance has been authorized for:

Vancouver Island:

• Alberni Clayoquot Regional District
• Campbell River, City of
• Comox Valley Regional District (Areas A,B,C)
• Comox, Town of
• Courtenay, City of
• Cumberland, Village of
• Hupacasath First Nation
• Nanaimo Regional District (All Areas)
• Nanaimo, City of
• Parksville, City of
• Port Alberni, City of
• Powell River Regional District (Area B)
• Powell River, City of
• Qualicum Beach, Town of
• Snuneymuxw First Nation
• Strathcona Regional District (Areas A,D)
• Tsehaht First Nation

Lower Mainland:

• Delta, City of
• Douglas First Nation
• Fraser Valley Regional District
• Lions Bay, Village of
• Mount Currie Nation
• North Vancouver, City of
• North Vancouver, District of
• Richmond, City of
• Samahquam First Nation
• Skatin First Nation
• Squamish Lillooet Regional District
• Squamish, District of
• West Vancouver, District of
• Whistler, Resort Community of

“All applicants should first check with their insurance agent to determine if their current insurance policy provides coverage for the resulting damage. Depending on the circumstances, businesses and farmers may have been able to obtain commercial insurance for certain losses. As part of the DFA qualification process, businesses, farmers and charitable/volunteer organizations will need to provide a letter from their insurer indicating that they could not have purchased insurance to cover these disaster-related losses.” 

“Information about Disaster Financial Assistance is available on the DFA web site at http://www.embc.gov.bc.ca/em/dfa_claims/dfa.html.  There you will find the DFA Application Form, ‘Disaster Financial Assistance Guidelines for Private Sector’ and ‘One Step at a time – A Guide to Disaster Recovery’.” 

“Although we encourage people to submit their application to us as soon as possible so that we can have the damage assessment completed promptly, the deadline date for EMBC to receive this form is March 12, 2015.”