The whole thing just seems to be a bit of a lottery.  Are you in a town on a flood plain but the entire town isn't?  Great, you get approx. full value (some tax assessments are more, some are less and are only partially correlated to market value).

Not in a flood plain, but your house was damaged because of how this last flood occurred, including some decisions made meant to prevent flooding in other areas?

You only get money to fix up to minimum standards (last I heard anyway) on the DRP.

Some of this seems a little backwards to me.  People who bought on obvious flood plains should be the first ones to be a little out of pocket, not the last.

The current PC government has behaved incredibly weirdly for the past few years.  My guess is that some wealthy PC supporters were among the 254 home owners being bought out.  Normally the homeowner would pick up 20 to 50% of the loss in this situation.  It is almost as though most of the information sorters and decision-makers were on crack or something.  Ken Hughes was chair of the board when AHS did many strange things.  Now that he is energy minister, he sits for 5 or more months on a report that says little, and misrepresents the little substance that is in the report.  The whole lot needs to take anxiety medication or go on an extended retreat or something and get their brains calmed down, focused, and using their critical faculties well.

The horror that occured in  High River just isn't ending, it seems.  Many people don't seem to be  getting the help they need.  Some are still waiting to find out whether they will get help or not. Some are still living in motels/friends homes/with elderly parents in a different community.   I have heard of some (who thought they were lucky because their insurance was covering their damage) who are now struggling with  cheques that have been claimed by the bank to apply to the outstanding mortgage.

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/calgary/story/1.1867888

My heart weeps with the children/parents/teachers dealing with the situations in the schools.  So many of these children have lost their homes, their security, their clothing and toys only to face a difficult situation everyday at school.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/politics/Principal+says+politics+delaying+High+River+portables/8954281/story.html

It seems to me that our country is just not handling disasters well.

Kay, how did the banks manage to take control over the cheques?

Possibly through the garnishee system.  Or for insurance payouts the banks are listed as a lien holder and so could place a claim?

What I hear via my phone is obviously 'stories told around the town' - so I can't say they are the necessarily true.  However I was told that the insurance company wrote the cheque to the bank and the home buyer.  Both parties signed and the bank retained ownership saying they would pay approved restoration bills when they arrived.  The home owner thought this was unfair as he had paid the insurance company and the money should be directly spent by him.  It made him uncomfortable as he had no idea which bills the bank would approve.

Thanks Kay, I'm just curious about the process.  It makes sense as most lenders require insurance before they will approve a mortgage.

Education should be better about mortgages, insurance, etc.  We asked lots of questions and learned things ourselves.  I had no idea about the difference between walking away from a home with CMHC vs. without it until I looked into it based on another thread related to the floods.  We had asked our broker about the advantages and disadvantages of an insured vs. conventional mortgage and it never came up.