The Insurance Bureau of Canada says early July flooding inOntario caused more than $850 million in insured property damageand the total is expected to rise.

A storm July 8-9, which dumped a record amount of rain inToronto shut down subways, knocked out power to 300,000 residentsand crippled air travel, set a record for insured losses in Ontariofrom a single event. Flights at Toronto Pearson International andToronto Island airports were significantly delayed orcanceled.

“While these preliminary estimates are staggering, we do expectthem to go even higher,” says Ralph Palumbo, IBC vice president forOntario.

According to IBS and PCS-Canada Service, the insured losses fromthe July storms trumped a wind and rain storm in August 2005 thatcaused $671 million in carrier payouts and a July 2009 rain eventthat billed insurers $228 million.

IBC says it does not have an insured-loss estimate for floodingin Alberta. “Any tabulation, at this point, is changing almostdaily,” the bureau says.

Flood losses in Canada and Europe dominated second-quarter catastrophe losses reported by multipleinsurers.

READ: Record-Breaking Rains Drench Toronto