Severe weather and flooding has resulted in the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) declaring an insurance catastrophe for Southeast Queensland, as well as areas of New South Wales and the Mid-North Coast region.
The catastrophic conditions have now been ongoing since February 21st, with record flood levels recorded in the Mary River system, reaching levels not seen since 2013.
Over the past week, insurers have received almost 15,000 claims from policyholders related to extreme rainfall in both Southeast Queensland and New South Wales.
However, the ICA maintains that it is still too early to provide an estimate of claims costs given the event is still unfolding and claims are still being reported.
“It’s too early to estimate the insurance damage bill as many property owners remain in evacuation centres and flood waters continue to rise in many areas, or in others recede slowly,” said ICA CEO Andrew Hall. “The insurance industry expects the number of claims to rise significantly as policyholders return to their homes and businesses.”
Australian insurer Suncorp said that it had received more than 5,000 claims across the two states as of February 28th, split around 70% towards Southeast Queensland and around 30% in New South Wales. Over 80% of total claims relate to home damage.
“Right now, safety is the number one priority as we continue to face significant and dangerous weather conditions,” said Suncorp Group CEO Steve Johnston. “Many roads, homes and businesses remain flooded so we must wait until it is safe to evaluate the impact.”
“We are carefully monitoring the situation, and we are ready to help our customers with any resulting claims,” Johnston continued. “The next few weeks will be challenging for residents as they return to their homes, assess the damage and start the clean-up.”
David Wilkes, Acting Executive General Manager Direct Claims at IAG, likewise expressed safety as a priority and said his company has a major events team on standby to help with emergency repairs, temporary accommodation and emergency funds.
“Safety is the number one priority and we’re here to help our customers with emergency support,” Wilkes said. “Where it’s safe to do so, our assessors and builders will move into the flood impacted areas, to ensure damaged properties are safe and look at the repairs required.”
The ICA’s catastrophe declaration serves to escalate and prioritise the insurance industry’s response for affected policyholders.
Under the Catastrophe declaration.
It means claims from affected policyholders are given priority by insurers, and are triaged to direct urgent assistance to the worst-affected property owners.
“The insurance industry has made this Catastrophe declaration to activate services and support for affected homeowners and businesses and reassure them that their insurer is there to help,” Hall explained.
An industry taskforce has also been established to identify and address issues arising from this extreme weather event, and ICA representatives will be mobilised to work with local agencies and services and affected policyholders as soon as emergency services say it is safe to do so.
