The early-January storm has cost private insurers nearly $34.2 million, according to the latest report from the Insurance Council of New Zealand.
“The storm of early January caused heavy flooding and substantial damage to the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty regions,” ICNZ chief executive Tim Grafton said.
In particular, the towns of Kaiāua and Thames suffered extensively. ICNZ, alongside private insurers, went into these towns shortly after the storm passed to talk to residents about the help they needed and to listen to their experiences.
Final figures from ICNZ show damages from the early-January storm cost insurers a total of $34,167,973 across 4,268 claims, with the majority arising from domestic and commercial claims.
“The cost of this storm demonstrates the importance of adapting to climate change and putting processes and infrastructure improvements in place that minimise the costs and impacts of these events,” Grafton added. “As time goes on, we expect these sorts of events to become both more frequent and more severe. Every dollar spent on adaptation now will be more than repaid in future savings.”
