After the flood: the impact of climate change on mental health and lost time from work

There has been no similar level of examination regarding how residential basement flooding might impact areas of interest to Life, Health and Disability insurers, such as mental and physical health impacts, and lost time from work. International studies have suggested there may be substantial impacts, but the full extent of these impacts and their financial costs in Canada has been subject to limited research to date.

This report aims to address this omission, based on 100 interviews with households that experienced basement flooding and non-flooded control households that were in close proximity to one another (i.e., less than one km separation). The geographic area of focus was Burlington, Ontario, which in August of 2014 experienced atypical and severe precipitation (196 mm over seven hours), that resulted in 3,500 homes flooded.