Cyclone Alfred is bearing down on Queensland and NSW and expected to make landfall today or Friday. Many thousands of residents, with help from the government, are preparing and securing their properties. Evacuation centres are open while businesses and schools across the region are closed.
Some major insurers have announced their readiness as they brace for what could be a very costly event. Loss estimates from S&P Global Ratings, based on the likely path of the cyclone, suggest the claims bill could be more than $2 billion.
Local brokers have also made preparations.
Daniel Berry (main picture, left side), partner with Dudgeon Berry Insurance Group, is in Tallebudgera on the Gold Coast. On Wednesday afternoon he said the winds picked up and the rain set in.
“A lot of preparation are underway,” said Berry. “Sandbag stations have been set up and evacuations centres are being established.”
The veteran of several Lismore floods said he was seeing lots of posts on social media about local residents with farms moving their animals to higher ground. Berry and his brokerage team have enacted their action plan.
“Staff will be working from home and workflows are being redistributed so we’re ready to start taking calls from the moment people need us most,” he said. “Our Lismore office will look to evacuate the CBD from tomorrow.”
Other local brokerages have also closed or are evacuating to work from home.
Berry said he and staff are ready to answer any questions from clients on coverage.
“We’ll start pushing updates through social media and newsletters on how to prepare and what the next steps will be if they are impacted,” said the broker.
Insurance Business asked if there’s one thing he’s particularly mindful of as Cyclone Alfred approaches?
“Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance,” said Berry. “I’m very mindful of our clients and colleagues over the next few weeks - it’s possibly going to be very busy.”
He encouraged brokers and their clients caught up in this event to look out for one another and be kind.
“Make sure you’re checking in with your teams daily and monitoring who is doing what,” said Berry. “Check in with how they’re doing themselves too.”
In Brisbane, Shane Moore (main picture, right side), said his team started working from home on Wednesday afternoon. Moore is managing director of brokerage, Trade Risk.
He said the conditions yesterday [on Wednesday] were overcast and windy.
“Not unlike other tropical storms we’ve seen,” said Moore. “It’s the calm before the storm!”
The broker said local supermarkets and hardware stores are stripped of torches, batteries and bottled water.
“There’s also been a COVID throwback to toilet paper hoarding!” Moore said. “Our local Bunnings also has empty shelves where the adhesive tapes would normally be, which I presume is for people taping up their windows.”
He said their brokerage office is not far from the Brisbane River or the bay but not in a low lying area.
“So around here we’re not seeing any evacuations or sandbagging at this stage,” said Moore.
He said his priority is the safety of staff, followed by ensuring the ability to continue servicing clients.
“From today we’ll switch to working from home and stay that way until it’s safe to return to the office,” said Moore. “I’m not expecting any change in our ability to look after our clients, which will obviously be important over the coming days.”
Compared to some insurance firms, he suggested the impact of Cyclone Alfred on his firm and clients should be relatively manageable.
“During weather events such as this we’re very fortunate to have no domestic property in our portfolio and less than half of our clients within the south-east Queensland area.”
However, he said he “really feels for other brokers” who do have larger property exposures within Brisbane and the coastal areas.
“The coming days and weeks are going to be very tough for them,” said Moore. “But not as tough as it will be for the people suffering the actual losses of course, but these events sure take their toll on people within the insurance industry.”
He said, despite some negative portrayals in the media, most insurance industry professionals do feel very personally invested in what happens to their clients.
Are you a broker preparing for Cyclone Alfred? If you have time, please tell us what you’re experiencing so far?
