Insured losses from Australian floods pegged at ~A$4bn

Insured losses from flooding that impacted eastern Australia between February 23 to March 8 have reached nearly A$4 billion ($3 billion), according to catastrophe loss aggregator  PERILS.

PERILS’ initial estimate of the insured market loss, based on loss data collected from the majority of the Australian insurance market, is A$3,991 million.

The loss figure covers property and motor hull lines of business.

The east coast of Australia experienced an extended period of heavy rainfall resulting in major river and surface water flooding.

“This event is the largest flood loss on record for the Australian insurance industry, exceeding the record Brisbane floods of 2011,” said Darryl Pidcock (pictured), head of PERILS Asia-Pacific.

“It was a very complex weather event from a meteorological perspective with changing weather systems during the loss period. The resulting damage from pluvial and river flooding was considerable, especially for South-East Queensland and the northern regions of New South Wales.

“Given the complexity of the weather systems, the application of event definition clauses for reinsurance purposes will vary across the market. Such clauses can include meteorological conditions and/or loss aggregation periods, such as the 168-hours clause, which means that there is no common market standard applied to the losses. Given these factors, the losses from this event have been reported by PERILS as one single insurance event.”

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