The devastated neighbourhood of Timberlea in Fort McMurray Alta. is shown on Wednesday June 1, 2016. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)
The Insurance Bureau of Canada is to announce later today its estimate of total insured damage caused by the wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alta.
The fires in May forced the evacuation of almost 90,000 residents from the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and destroyed about 2,400 homes and other buildings.
People have since been allowed back into the community, but it took nearly two months before a state of emergency could be lifted.
The bureau said the estimate will be the first based on data collected by Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc., a company that compiles insured loss amounts based on surveys with insurers.
The costliest insured disaster in Canadian history was the Quebec ice storm of 1998, which forced insurers to pay out $1.9 billion in constant 2014 dollars, according to a 2015 IBC annual report.
The Alberta floods of 2013 were the second costliest, resulting in $1.8 billion in insured damage.
The Canadian Press
