The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) released new data yesterday showing that storm and flood insurance claims have cost more than A$12.3bn ($8.3bn) since January 2020.
Almost half of these costs, or A$5.65bn, were the result of flooding in February and March of this year. When compared to the expense of the Sydney hailstorm in 1999, this natural disaster is the costliest in Australia's history .
During the last three years, South Australia and Western Australia have been hit by storms and cyclone activity, while every eastern state has been severely impacted by flooding.
Insurers have received nearly 788,000 claims related to floods and storms since January 2020, with one in every 25 adult Australians filing a claim in that time frame due to the extreme wet weather.
Nearly 22,000 claims totaling A$244 million were filed as a result of the extreme weather that flooded western Sydney and its environs in July.
More than 17,200 claims were filed as a result of the storms and floods that hit Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales in the middle of the month. Insured damages were estimated to exceed A$477m.
There have been over 3,600 claims filed due to the flooding in Central West NSW. Estimates of the damage bill are still being worked out as insurers are currently on the ground helping affected communities.
"Each of the 788,000 wild and wet weather claims lodged with insurers over the past three years represents a significant disruption to a homeowner, tenant, landlord, business owner, primary producer, or motor vehicle owner in Australia," said ICA CEO Andrew Hall.
It's humbling to think that one in every 25 of us has filed an insurance claim due to the severe weather.
Not investing in community-wide mitigation, home retrofits, home buybacks in the most extreme cases, and improved early warning systems is a mistake that cannot be ignored in light of this data.
We should also stop constructing houses in dangerous areas and strengthen those that are being built now.
