The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has declared the severe storm that hit the country’s east coast at the beginning of April a ‘Significant Event’.
According to ICA, insurers have received 11,527 claims to date from the storms that caused heavy rainfall, damaging winds and flash flooding, which greatly impacted the Hawkesbury-Nepean and Illawarra regions of New South Wales.
Most claims are related to damage to buildings and contents as a result of wind and heavy rain causing gutters to overflow and flash flooding to occur.
At this stage, according to the announcement, it is too early to estimate the insurance damage bill.
The ICA’s extreme management processes have been activated to escalate insurers’ response for customers impacted by the event from Wednesday 3 April 2024 to Monday 8 April.
Under a ‘Significant Event’ declaration the ICA commences its claims data collection, analysis, and reporting processes in consultation with members.
ICA representatives will also continue to work with government and agencies to understand impacts on the community and ensure affected residents receive assistance, the council noted.
Insurers like IAG have mobilised its national resources, including claims teams, assessors and builders, to help customers and communities impacted by the heavy rainfall and flooding.
The insurer has reported that, since April 3, it has received more than 3,100 claims with over 80% of them relating to property damage. As of April 6, IAG had received 3,169 claims across its brands.
With the cleanup underway across impacted communities, IAG Executive General Manager Claims Luke Gallagher said IAG’s assessors and partner repairers have already been on the ground assessing the damage to properties and undertaking emergency make-safe repairs for impacted customers.
As flood waters recede, Suncorp is also on the ground to assist with the impacts of widespread rain and flooding across New South Wales.
The insurer, including brands AAMI, GIO and Apia, has received around 2,700 claims lodged from the intense rain and storms impacting the region last week, with more than 2,100 of those for homes.
For customers whose homes have been impacted by flooding, Suncorp is trying to provide as much information as possible on what to do to get the claims process underway as quickly as possible.
This summer, losses from declared insurance catastrophes in Australia have reached close to $1.6 billion, according to new data highlighted by ICA.
The cost of the Christmas Storms has now exceeded $1.1 billion, incurred from nearly 95,000 claims. The cost of Ex-TC Jasper was $296 million incurred from nearly 10,000 claims, while for the Valentines’ Day storms was $162 million, incurred from nearly 25,000 claims.
“The summer of 2023-24 saw a number of extreme weather events across the east coast, with two declared catastrophes including a cyclone and severe storms and flooding in Queensland,” ICA CEO Andrew Hall commented.
He continued: “As we move into autumn the impact of extreme weather continues with the storm that largely impacted New South Wales last Friday and Saturday. Insurers are already on the ground in impacted areas assisting customers and responding to claims and will be at Recovery Centres in the Illawarra and Hawksbury-Nepean over the next three days.”
