Editorial: Preparing for the unknown

Until May 31, 1985 I really had no idea what a tornado was, or that wind could cause so much damage. 

Like most young children in Ontario, I was blissfully unaware – and untouched by – severe weather. Growing up in the Niagara Peninsula, until that point in my life I had only experienced bad thunderstorms and heavy lake-effect snowfalls. 

I recall my parents showing me photos of the infamous Blizzard of ’78 and my dad telling me tales of being trapped in Hamilton and (in his mind, I thought at the time) the ‘extraordinary’ lengths it took him to get home.

The Barrie and Grand Valley tornadoes, part of a prolonged U.S.-Canada outbreak on the last day of May 37 years ago, remains one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in Canada’s history. And for many, like me, it was the first time we witnessed – albeit on television and in the newspaper – the devastation of extreme weather in the province. 

As an adult I can now appreciate and empathize with my dad’s memories. Where I now live in southwestern Ontario, it’s common to get several tornado warnings a year and two have touched ground within 30 kilometres of my house. Power outages are much more common than they used to be, in every season. 

My husband and I think a lot more now about whether or not our house insurance will cover us for extreme weather than when we bought our house 14 years ago. We keep candles and our camping lanterns and portable stove handy in case of a prolonged power outage but admittedly, we take for granted that we haven’t been without power for days at a time, and could be better prepared.

It takes events such as the derecho storm and tornado that ripped through Uxbridge and parts of eastern Ontario late last month to provide us with yet another reminder to review our preparedness checklist, and ask ourselves, “what would we do if our house or property experienced damage from extreme weather, flooding, or fire? Who do we call first? Where would we go if we can’t live in the house for days, or weeks? What is, and isn’t covered, by insurance? How long would cleaning up take?” 

For readers of Farmtario, the questions are much more complex. 

You have much more than a house to consider, such as caring for livestock, crops, equipment and outbuildings. 

Emergency preparedness is certainly not a new concept and I’m sure most of you have emergency plans and insurance in place for losses due to power outages, fires, and weather events that may affect crop yields and storage, livestock health or buildings. 

But often these plans are not revisited and updated, and new staff come and go. If something were to happen on your farm, is contact information for suppliers and your insurance company accessible for staff and family members? 

Ensuring insurance coverage is up to date is also key, as extreme weather events are projected to continue increasing in both frequency and severity. The chance that one may be affected is quickly becoming a ‘this is unlikely to happen to me’ to ‘this could very well happen to me’ scenario. 

And as Kevin Varley, Agri/Commercial specialist with Josslin Insurance told our reporter Diana Martin (see page 7), he said it’s likely that weather-driven events will change how insurance companies calculate premiums. He said that fire used to be the biggest peril for premium calculation, whereas today it ranks third, behind wind and water. 

For livestock producers, disease risks and biosecurity have become part of emergency planning. Since the avian influenza outbreak in British Columbia in 2004, the poultry industries in Canada developed plans to help producers navigate the steps involved from depopulation, decontamination, and repopulation. Although North America is currently experiencing another significant avian influenza event, farmers, industry and government know what steps to take to ensure the spread is contained as much as possible, and businesses can get back up and running in a shorter amount of time than what occurred in 2004. 

With the threat of African Swine Fever (ASF) looming, Ontario Pork has begun a comprehensive emergency planning process, the first-of-its-kind in Canada. It builds on the organization’s 2017 emergency planning process to consider how animals will be taken care of or depopulated, as well as financial considerations.

It’s a proactive approach, so the industry is prepared as it can be in the case of a foreign animal disease or if a significant market disruption occurs. 

Preparing for a worst-case scenario that may not happen isn’t a fun task, and it takes time – but it’s best to as ready as possible and financially protected if it does.