Cyclone Marcia claims sky rocket

Claims made following Cyclone Marcia, which devastated parts of Central Queensland three weeks ago, have sky-rocketed according to the latest figures released by the Insurance Council of Australia.

Source: Insurance Business Editor

The ICA has increased the reserved value of insurance losses to $403.6 million with nearly 30,000 claims already lodged.

ICA CEO Rob Whelan noted that commercial insurance claims had picked up at a rapid pace in the period after the storm and can be seen as one of the main reasons for the influx of claims and insured losses.

“These business claims are for a wide range of cyclone-related losses, from property and vehicle damage to business interruption. Many of these cases are quite complex,” Whelan said.

While most of the claims received so far have been for domestic policies, commercial claims are beginning to trickle through to insurers which, Whelan noted, is usual in the aftermath of an event like Cyclone Marcia.

Whelan stressed that the nature of the damage to many properties in the region was due to the fact that many older buildings were not built to the strict building codes now in place which offers a silver-lining to re-building home-owners.

“A large proportion of the properties severely damaged or destroyed by Cyclone Marcia were older buildings with poor resilience to the impact of cyclones and storms.”

“However, there is a silver lining to this catastrophe. Most insured properties will be rebuilt or repaired to today’s cyclone building standards, which will ensure they have greater resilience to cyclones that may affect the region in the future.”