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VANCOUVER, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The damage caused by wildfires in Fort McMurray in Canada's Alberta province in early May would total 3.58 billion Canadian dollars (2.75 billion U.S. dollars), the Insurance Bureau of Canada said on Thursday.
It is the costliest natural disaster for insurers in Canadian history so far.
This is more than twice the amount of the previous costliest natural disaster on record -- the 2013 southern Alberta flood, which cost 1.7 billion Canadian dollars in insurance claims.
"This wildfire, and the damage it caused, is more alarming evidence that extreme weather events have increased in both frequency and severity in Canada," Don Forgeron, President and CEO of Insurance Bureau of Canada, said in a statement.
The nearly two-week fires in Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta forced the evacuation of nearly 90,000 residents and destroyed about 2,400 homes and other buildings.
People have started going back into the community since early June, but it took nearly two months before a state of emergency could be lifted.
The bureau said its estimate was the first based on data collected by Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc., a company that compiles insured loss amounts based on surveys with insurers. Enditem
