While lightning was streaking across the prairie skies on Wednesday night, hail was pounding Saskatchewan crops.
For the Municipal Hail Insurance, that means the phones have been ringing all day.
“Things are humming, we’ve got a couple hundred claims already,” said Rodney Schoettler, CEO of Municipal Hail Insurance. “The reports that are coming in from the claimants are (that) it’s severe and lots of damage.”
Schoettler said it usually takes people a day or two to make a claim, so he expects the number to grow.
“I’m guessing this storm will be 500 to 1,000 claims,” he said. “It should be the biggest event of the year, and it will definitely be the most costly.”
Due to it being so close to harvest, a lot of the crops have matured, making them more valuable, causing the damage cost to skyrocket.
“There was lots of wind and rain with this (storm),” he said. “It’s going to be up there with the big ones (this decade), so in our office for the year of 2025, it’s certainly going to be one of the major events of the year.”
Schoettler said it’s still too early to know where the most damage was done, but there are some early indications.
“If you go from Saskatoon to Humboldt, that looks like it’s going to be pretty heavy and big,” he said. “North Battleford to Rosthern looks like a lot of volume is going to come, and then if you go down to the southwest in that Leader area… from what the people are saying it’s pretty nasty there too.”
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