This year is the most expensive year for weather events since records began, with insurance companies left with $31 million costs in damage to people’s homes, businesses, contents and cars after the wild weather in July.
The Insurance Council of New Zealand said the nation was hit by snow, rain and wind on the second week of July, which cost insurers $10.3 million. Nationwide flooding the following week cost $20.9 million, according to a report from the
NZ Herald.
“The two July weather events bring the total for significant weather events for 2017 to $230.2 million, which now surpasses the year of the Wahine storm in 1968,” Insurance Council Chief Executive
Tim Grafton told the
NZ Herald.
Around 3,600 house and contents claims, 843 commercial claims and 426 vehicle claims were lodged costing $16 million, $11 million, and $2.7 million respectively, provisional data from the council showed.
The bad weather in July caused chaos across the country, particularly in the coastal areas of the South Island where several hundred people were evacuated, with states of emergency put in place for Dunedin, Otago, Christchurch and Selwyn.
Road closures were put place in Dunedin, Waitaki, Maniototo, Ida Valley and the Clutha District at the peak of the flooding, while some community were told to boil water after a leakage of sewage, the
NZ Herald said.
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