Up to $80K in flood damage, insurance won't cover Lewisporte man

A Lewisporte man whose basement ended up underwater during heavy rains this week says his insurance company won't cover the damage.

By Friday, Trent Nicholas had a dumpster full of broken gyproc and wood parked outside his home. Friends had helped move firewood from the soggy basement to his garden and vacuumed up the water.

But his furnace is ruined, and he estimated it will cost up to $80,000 to repair the damage to his home.

"I was supposed to have insurance," Nicholas told CBC News. "Because it did come through my toilets and through my sump pumps and flooded this area, but because it came over the ground after, they said they wouldn't cover it because it's over the ground flooding."

Flooding was so bad in Lewisporte as the tail end of Hurricane Matthew hammered central Newfoundland, the town declared a state of emergency. Many homes are damaged.

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One street away, Nicholas's neighbour Triffie Burt had a lawn full of rolled up carpet, and wet furniture. But when it comes to insurance coverage, she's lucky.

"Ours, we had sewer. If there's a good thing of having sewer backup, we had it," said Burt.

"I did manage to get my grandmother's rocking chair out, and my bookcase my husband built for me, but pretty much everything else is gone."

A loss worth about $25,000, she said.

Burt is grateful for the Red Cross, which has helped with food, clothing and a flood recovery kit with brooms, bags and cleaning supplies.

"It made me feel really good to know that there's help out there for anyone who would need it."