Fifth anniversary of the July 8, 2013 Toronto and area flood

Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction experts available for
media interviews to discuss the event, flood prevention etc.

TORONTO, July 5, 2018 /CNW/ - Five years ago, Toronto and surrounding areas were hit with a rainstorm described by many as biblical. Slow-moving storm cells made their way over parts of the city, dumping 101.7 millimetres ? more than 10 centimetres - of rain at Toronto's Pearson Airport in just two hours. More than 21,000 basement flood claims were filed as a result of damage in Toronto, eastern Mississauga and other communities. Insured losses exceeded $1 billion (2016 dollars), making the event the costliest insured disaster in Ontario history.

Disaster mitigation and policy experts from the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) are available to answer media inquiries concerning the flood. Topics may include relating the impacts of the event (physical and financial), flood prevention measures for residential homes, and the need for overland flood insurance even when living away from waterways.

Paul Kovacs is founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at Western University. He is Canada's leading authority on insurance, natural hazards and climate change and has been a contributing author to numerous international and Canadian reports on reducing the risk of loss from flood, earthquakes, severe wind and wildfire. He has written more than 200 publications and articles and is a passionate champion for insurance, disaster resilience and adaptation to climate extremes

Dan Sandink is Director of Research for ICLR. He has led a significant portion of the Institute's urban flood risk reduction work, and has authored or co-authored dozens of reports and articles on topics related to urban flooding and natural hazards. His work has focused on public risk perceptions, adoption of lot-level practices, insurance, climate change adaptation, lot-level flood protection technologies, inflow/infiltration, construction codes, and mitigation of wildland-urban interface fire and high wind risk for low-rise residential buildings, among other topics.

Glenn McGillivray is Managing Director of ICLR. As an insurance writer and commentator, his work has been widely disseminated across Canada. He has written more than 225 magazine and journal articles, publications and blogposts on a range of issues. He has appeared on CBC's The National and The Exchange, CTV's Your Morning and Power Play, CBC Radio's The Current and CP24, as well as a number of other television and radio news and interview programs. Additionally, he speaks and lectures regularly on subjects related to the area of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and natural hazards.

Sophie Guilbault is Manager, Partnership Development. She completed her Masters at Tulane University in Disaster Resilience Leadership Studies and holds a Master of Architecture degree from Laval University. At ICLR, Sophie is leading the Cities Adapt research program, ICLR's Quick Response Grant Program and MEOPAR research on hurricane warnings in Atlantic Canada. Sophie can provide interviews in both English and French.

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Established in 1998 by Canada's property and casualty insurers, ICLR is an independent, not-for-profit research institute based in Toronto and at Western University in London, Canada. ICLR is a centre of excellence for disaster loss prevention research and education. ICLR's research staff is internationally recognized for pioneering work in a number of fields including wind and seismic engineering, atmospheric sciences, water resources engineering and economics. Multi-disciplined research is a foundation for ICLR's work to build communities more resilient to disasters.

SOURCE Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction