Financial assistance available for people affected by flooding in Savona

VICTORIA - Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) is now available through a new online application portal for eligible people in Savona who were affected by flash flooding on June 30, 2024.

People can access specifics about this event and the DFA application online: http://www.gov.bc.ca/disasterfinancialassistance

DFA may compensate for the loss of sudden, unexpected and uninsurable items that are essential. This may include building repairs to a principal residence, replacement of essential personal effects, cleanup and debris removal.

A new online portal is available to make it easier for people to apply for financial support for uninsurable losses after a disaster. The portal is designed to accept only complete applications to ensure people can be reimbursed for uninsured losses of essential items faster. Before the online portal, people were required to follow a paper-based application process.

DFA is available to homeowners, renters, business owners, farmers, corporation-owned properties and charitable organizations who were unable to obtain insurance to cover disaster-related losses. DFA is unable to compensate for losses for which insurance was reasonably and readily available.

Applications for the Savona DFA event must be submitted to the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR) within 90 calendar days of the event declaration. The deadline to submit applications for Savona DFA is Oct. 14, 2024.

The Province has enhanced and expanded the DFA program in recent years to better support people and communities. These changes include:

• increased maximum DFA support available per claim from $300,000 to $400,000;
• expanded eligibility for small businesses based on minimum income;
• expanded annual revenue threshold for small businesses from $1 million to $2 million so more businesses can qualify for DFA;
• expanded eligibility for the farming sector to include homes owned by corporations if the home is used as a primary residence;
• increased provincial contributions to local infrastructure recovery; and
• to help communities rebuild critical infrastructure projects faster, the Province now may provide a portion of the project's estimated costs up front.

Learn More:

Information, eligibility criteria, categories and applications can be found by calling toll free 1 888 257-4777 or visiting: http://www.gov.bc.ca/disasterfinancialassistance

To learn about improvements the Province made to DFA after the November 2021 flooding event, visit:
https://news.gov.bc.ca/26713

A backgrounder follows.

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