Deadline for nominations: 4 pm (MST), December 20, 2013
While the floods of June 2013 were devastating, relief and recovery efforts show the resilience and community spirit of Albertans. During and following the floods, thousands of groups and individuals went above and beyond to help our communities.
Do you know of any heroes?
The ‘Heroes of the Flood’ campaign is your chance to recognize those exceptional individuals. Your hero may be anyone — a first responder, a neighbour, a government official, a construction worker, a charity representative. Your hero may be a group or an individual. No matter who they are, we want to know about them.
Alberta’s Heroes of the Flood will be formally recognized starting in January 2014.
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2013 Disaster Recovery Program
Deadline to apply is November 30, 2013. Even if you are waiting for information from your insurance company, apply to DRP.
Disaster recovery programs provide financial assistance for uninsurable property damage, loss and other expenses. Funds are only available to the owner of the property at the time the flood damage occurred. The funds cover the costs of returning essential property to the functional condition before the disaster happened:
- homeowners and tenants
- not-for-profit organizations, institutions and condo associations
- landlords and small businesses (20 or less full-time employees)
- agricultural producers
Note: The Small Business Rebuilding Program provides support to small businesses with 21 to 50 full time employees
Albertans who experienced flood damage in flood fringes can use Disaster Recovery Program funds to install flood mitigation measures. Those who undertake approved measures will be eligible to receive DRP funding for any future flood that exceeds the 1-in-100 year flood event criteria.
For more information you can also review the Alberta Disaster Assistance Guidelines. This document provides the guidelines for the implementation of the Disaster Assistance Program. Of particular interest are Part 3 – General Eligibility Criteria (page 6), 5.3 Recovery (page 11) and 5.4 Small Business (page 14).
There is also an online Frequently Asked Questions which includes a general section on the Disaster Recovery Program, including sections on payments, mitigation measures and land titles, along with the sections on small business and not-for-profit programs and flood mapping. The FAQs are updated on a regular basis, so it is preferred that individuals check the website for the most current information.
DRP can be contacted at 1-888-671-1111 or in-person at the following locations:
- Calgary – 10:00 am – 6:00 pm weekdays
Willowglen Business Park, 803 Manning Road. N.E.
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Hand Up Plan – Small Business Recovery Programs
Note: Applications are being accepted now until December 31, 2013.
The Hand-up Plan provides immediate financial assistance for eligible types of organizations severely affected by the June 2013 floods in southern Alberta and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo:
- small businesses
- agricultural producers
- First Nation enterprises
- self-employed contractors
- not-for-profit
That is more than 1,500 businesses and nearly 400 not-for profits. These are groups that help communities recover.
Government is working in partnership with financial institutions and the Agricultural Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) to provide low-interest loans partially guaranteed by the province as well as interest rebates to affected organizations.
All of the above information is available on the Alberta Flood Recovery website – http://alberta.ca/Flood-Recovery.cfm or through the Flood Info Line – 310-4455.