Almost a year after the devastating hailstorm struck south-eastern Queensland on Halloween 2020, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) confirmed that almost 90% of the event's insurance claims have now been closed.
Sunday marks a year since the Halloween hailstorm occurred, which triggered more than 44,000 claims for storm and hail damage, resulting in approximately $1.08 billion insured losses. As of October 27, 88% of claims had been closed.
The $1.08 billion in insurance claims included:
The ICA said claims are still being lodged, with 1,000 claims submitted in the past eight weeks.
Insurers have made significant progress over the past two months and expect to finalise the claims in the coming weeks. However, claims processing following the hailstorm was impacted by external factors, including:
ICA CEO Andrew Hall offered assurances that insurers have been working hard to catch up to claims processing.
However, the Bureau of Meteorology warned that widespread flooding, coastal flooding and erosion, tropical cyclones, and marine heatwaves will most likely hit Australia over the coming months. This could once again put pressure on insurers’ claims operations.
“Families, businesses, and communities rely on insurance disaster responders from interstate or overseas in the aftermath of natural disasters – without them, recovery is delayed with significant personal, social, and economic impacts,” Hall said. “That's why the ICA has called on state and federal governments to urgently agree to a nationally consistent approach to the movement of fully vaccinated insurance disaster responders across state borders.”
