Thirty three flood victims have cheques that are "in the mail" Three of the 310 claims received were turned down.

By Pepper Parr

January 23, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

The wheels do at times move very slowly but they are at least moving a little.

The Burlington Community Foundation (BCF) announced on Wednesday that they have completed their review of 36 claims made for financial support for those who were financially damaged by the August 4th flood that dumped 191 mm of water on the city in a single day.

Whatever people get in the way of financial support – there will never be enough to cover thew loss. Hundreds of people had to deal with situations like this in their basements,

A total of 310 claims were received. Of the 36 that have been reviewed – 33 were approved and payment will be sent out. Claimants can expect to receive an email with a letter from the Burlington Community Foundation setting out the preliminary amount approved and the interim payment as well.

The Ontario Disaster Assistance Relief Program guidelines requires all 310 claims submitted to be reviewed before final payments can be made to claimants.

The interim claim disbursements will be 50% of the preliminary total amount approved. Total amounts approved by the Disaster Relief Committee (DRC)  are preliminary and subject to change.

Once all 310 claims have been reviewed, the DRC can determine the final payment amounts and disburse final cheques. The committee’s goal is to have the process completed by the end of April.

People who lived in homes that were either under insured or uninsured were eligible for financial support.  There are many homes in Burlington that cannot get insurance – other found that they were limited as tot he amount of insurance coverage they could buy.

Cheque for $20,000 from the Bank of Montreal was greatly received.

Why so complicated? The BCF faces a bit of a supply and demand problem. They know how much money they have to distribute: $905,000,00 was raised from within the community which was matched by the province on a two for one basis which gives BCF a total of $2,715,000 to distribute.

How much will each claimant get? The BCF won’t know that number until all the claims are reviewed. Requiring people with pressing financial needs to wait until all the paper has been shuffled was a bit much – so the BCF decided to pay out 50% of the claim and once they know how much money is available – pay out the balance. That balance may not turn out to be exactly 50% – might be more, could be less.

At least they have finds moving.

The cheque sent out will actually come from the city of Burlington.

Those whose claims have been denied will also receive a letter and a phone call with an explanation as to why the claim was denied.

“The Claims Committee is working diligently and will continue meeting every two weeks to process each claim,” says Colleen Mulholland, President and CEO, Burlington Community Foundation. “We are extremely pleased that cheques will start going out within the next two weeks to assist eligible flood victims with their recovery efforts.”