Manitoba storm on pace to break 30-year insurance claims record, MPI says

Manitoba Public Insurance is struggling to keep up after thousands of drivers were dinged by Tuesday's storm.

Manitoba Public Insurance says it has received approximately 20,000 claims in the days since Tuesday’s severe storm—a figure expected to shatter a record that has stood for nearly three decades.

The storm that struck on June 9 and continued into the following day unleashed destructive weather across a wide swath of southern Manitoba. Environment and Climate Change Canada received reports of hail as large as grapefruits—100 millimetres in diameter—in Otterburne, with tennis ball-sized hail falling in Winnipeg and Sanford. Golf ball-sized hail was also reported in other areas of southern Manitoba.

In a news release issued Friday, MPI said the volume of claims puts the event on pace to be the highest ever recorded following a single event. The current all-time record was set after a July 1996 hailstorm that generated 24,000 claims. MPI expects claims to continue rolling in over the weeks and months ahead, meaning the final tally will likely climb well past that mark.

The Crown corporation acknowledged that processing the “unprecedented number of claims” is unfeasible using current processes, and said it is developing a new phased approach to manage the backlog.

MPI said it intends to outline that plan to customers in the coming days, with the goal of providing early damage assessments and getting vehicles into repair shops more quickly.

In the meantime, MPI is urging customers to file claims as soon as possible and is warning that significant delays should be expected given the scale of the situation. “We are working around the clock to put procedures in place that will help us respond as quickly as possible,” the release said.

Customers with vehicles that are still safely drivable can file a claim online. Those whose vehicles cannot be driven should call MPI’s Contact Centre at 204-985-7000 or toll-free at 1-800-665-2410.