PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organisation that provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has revealed the final estimate of the insurance market loss for the Southeast Australia floods of October 2022 totalled AU$965 million.
The wet and stormy weather that occurred in October 2022 was driven by low-pressure systems that connected with tropical air masses from the north, loaded with moisture from exceptionally warm ocean waters. The extreme weather resulted in riverine and pluvial flooding in the Murray-Darling basin of Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) and later Tasmania.
The final insurance loss figures covered the property and motor lines of business, with the former accounting for 91% of the total industry loss and the latter accounting for 9%. Among the states, Victoria (84% of the total industry loss) and NSW (12%) were significantly hit by the event, while Tasmania, Queensland, and South Australia saw moderate losses.
The final estimate of AU$965 million is a slight increase from the AU$907 million estimate issued by PERILS on April 27, 2023, six months after the event.
“Australia has recently moved into an El Niño phase, with drier and warmer conditions expected during the upcoming summer. Notwithstanding, the release of this final loss report is a timely reminder of the devastating flooding that has occurred across many regions in Australia during the recent La Niña phase,” said PERILS CEO Luzi Hitz.
