Cinema owner still awaits promised storm flood compensation reform

Three years after storm flooding devastated a cinema in Aabenraa, its owner is still waiting for a promised expansion of Denmark’s compensation scheme, DR reports. Per Matthiesen says he paid more than 600,000 kroner for repairs and lost ticket revenue after water flooded a screening room at Kinorama in 2023.

The water rose through the sewer rather than entering from street level, so the damage was not covered by the storm flood scheme. Sewer water damage is excluded under the current rules.

The October 2023 storm flood caused more than one billion kroner in damage overall. Two out of five people who reported damage to the Natural Damage Council were denied compensation.

In April 2024, then-business minister Morten Bødskov said the government was ready to consider changing the scheme so it could cover more people. But the rules have not been changed.

“It’s really shit. We are looking at more storm floods in the future,” said Matthiesen.

The insurance industry has also criticised the lack of change. It wants the threshold for declaring a storm flood lowered. Under the current criteria, an event must be expected to occur only once every 20 years to qualify. The industry group Insurance and Pension says climate change may bring events that are almost as severe but do not meet that threshold.

“If we still want it to cover disasters, we need to change the coverage criteria so that disasters in the future are covered too. They are not covered today,” said Thomas Brenøe, director of regulation and consumer affairs at Insurance and Pension.

Recent warnings of higher water levels in Aabenraa left Matthiesen awake for much of the night. The water did not approach the levels seen in 2023, but he said another flood causing the same damage would force him to close screening room 2 permanently.

Current Business Minister Martin Lidegaard declined an interview but said in a written response that work on the issue is continuing. The existing scheme would be available if a storm flood struck now, he said, while officials are also considering what a future scheme should look like. He expects an answer soon and said the aim is to create a lasting scheme rather than a quick fix.