By Patricia Meunier
Independent Swiss-based organisation PERILS has estimated the Eastern Australia floods in February-March 2022 cost the insurance market $4.895 billion.
The amount includes losses from the property and motor hull lines of business. PERILS provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data based on original information and numbers collected from most of the Australian insurance market.
This is significant increase of the company’s initial estimate of $3.991 billion in April.
“The complexity and volume of claims caused by this weather event are presenting significant challenges to the insurance industry, which is reflected in the increase in PERILS’ second loss estimate,” said Darryl Pidcock, Head of PERILS Asia-Pacific.
An updated estimate of property and motor hull market loss from the Eastern Australia floods will be released in September. This report will include a detailed footprint of the industry loss by postcode.
The 2022 Eastern Australia floods were one of Australia’s worst flood disasters. From February 20 to March 11 2022, an extended period of heavy rainfall caused significant river and surface water flooding. A perfect storm of factors and the global warming constant issue created conditions for dramatic flooding across Queensland and NSW.
Twenty-two people died during the disaster. Almost one thousand schools were closed during the flooding and thousands of evacuations took place in the affected areas. The supply chain was in crisis and food shortages were reported in some communities.
Feature image: Floodwaters delivered a huge hit to the insurance market. Photo: dad1_/CC/flickr
