The massive floods that devastated swaths of southern Alberta in June are estimated to be the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, with the Insurance Bureau of Canada pegging the property damage at C$1.7 billion ($1.65 billion).

The bureau, which represents Canadian home, cars and business insurers, said the preliminary estimate for the floods surpassed the C$1.57 billion in damage caused by the 1998 ice storms in Ontario and Quebec.

"It's a staggering number that we expect will go even higher," Bill Adams, the bureau's vice-president, western and pacific, said in a statement.

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