Duncan Jewell.
HEATHER BOA Bullet News GODERICH – About $4.7 million is committed from a fund established to help compensate people whose homes, businesses, cars and other property were damaged by the F3 tornado that ripped through the area a year ago, says Duncan Jewell, who is chair of the Goderich and Area Disaster Relief Committee.
Of that, the committee has paid out $2.4 million in disaster relief funding to residents and businesses in Goderich, Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh and Central Huron. This is a change from Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Programs in the past, he said, during the appreciation / donor wall recognition ceremony Aug. 21.
“What we decided as a committee was that we would pay out the money because we had some millions of dollars in the bank. It was money that was raised by our committee and donated by people in Huron County, throughout Canada and the world,” he said. The committee raised $4 million, which means it can pay out as much as $12 million when the province’s 2:1 funding formula is applied.
A portion of claims was paid out, with claims under $30,000 paid in full. Some money is being held back until the full value of claims is known. Residents had until July 31 to turn in all paperwork, while commercial claimants have until Aug. 31.
In other ODRAPs, claims were not paid until the end of the program.
“ I think what we wanted to do as a committee was put the money back into the community as soon as possible instead of waiting for this undetermined end of the program,” Jewell said.
As well, it changed the rules to help a number of tenants living in the downtown area.
“The amount of money available to the people who do not have insurance, particularly tenants who lived on West Street and around The Square was just not sufficient for them to even regain a foothold in their lives,” he said.
By the Nov. 25, 2011 deadline for filing applications, the committee received 373 applications. It has dealt with 329 applications, of which 219 were approved and 77 were withdrawn or closed because the claimant had sufficient insurance to cover their losses. It still has between 40 and 50 claims to resolve, the majority of which are large business claims that will be reviewed in September.
Under the program, the province pays all administration costs so that 100 per cent of money raised through fund-raising goes to claimants.
