Compensation funding for Sussex flood, pre-Christmas storm coming soon

Those affected by two heavy rain storms this winter are now eligible for disaster financial assistance, according to a news release from the province. 

The announcement comes as a great relief for Sussex residents, says Mayor Marc Thorne.

His community was affected by the heavy rain that began on Feb. 28. It caused significant flooding, comparable to that of the 2014 flood in Sussex, which caused more than $10 million in damages, Thorne said.

"Those two floods were the ones in anyone's memory that caused the most damage in our community," he said. 

"Beyond the actual presence of water, it's the current, it's the flow of the water and the silt that is contained in the water that causes enormous damage to the homes."

That storm, which caused significant damage in southern New Brunswick and forced 24 Sussex residents out of their homes, is one of those now included under the disaster financial assistance program. 

The other is the pre-Christmas storm that began on Dec. 18. It brought extreme winds, heavy rain and mass power outages to much of the province.

According to the news release from the Department of Public Safety, the financial assistance "helps with eligible damage and losses that threaten the health and safety of individuals, local governments and small businesses."

It says the assistance only covers uninsurable losses and only assists in covering the basic costs of essential items. CBC News has asked the province for more information about what this includes and is awaiting a response.

Not counting the damage to residents' homes, damage to infrastructure adds up to over a million dollars in uninsurable losses, he said.

He said residents have been anxious, hoping they would meet the threshold for financial assistance. 

"When I became, last week, aware that the program was going to become available, I reached out to a number of people in our community that were greatly, greatly relieved to hear it," Thorne said.

The news release said details on how to apply for the assistance will be announced soon, but in the meantime, residents are asked to contact their insurance companies, take photos of damage they incurred, keep receipts for any repairs and log the hours of work it took to clean up post-storm.