The Insurance Council of Australia says insurance adjusters have started to enter towns in Queensland affected by raging flood from cyclone Oswald.
According to the ICA, insurers have received about 21,900 claims with losses estimated to be about $187 million in Queensland.
Insurers are focused on Bundaberg, where about 1,000 properties have been flooded, says the ICA.
The storm has also caused flooding in New South Wales, where insured losses are estimated to be $10 million from about 2,000 claims, reports the ICA.
"We expect these numbers will rise as more property owners lodge claims and assessors start to enter residential and commercial properties that have been inundated by flood waters," says Rob Whelan, CEO of the ICA, in a statement.
Whelan says the insurance industry has "long-been concerned" with the lack of mitigation and prevention efforts in Queensland to prevent flooding. In an earlier statement, Whelan says many New South Wales communities are protected by mitigation infrastructure, such as levees.
Nature has not been kind to Queensland recently. Beginning late 2011 into early 2012, flooding over a large area of the Southeast corner of the states caused insured losses of $2.39 billion. Cyclone Yasi along the shore of Queensland in 2011 caused $1.4 billion in insured losses, says the ICA.
A report early this year by the ICA says risk and pricing in some high-risk flooding zones became unsustainable for some insurers in 2012, which led to a partial withdrawal. The trade group warns of government intervention if flood risks become unaffordable. "Such actions can ultimately encourage further inappropriate development of flood-prone land, increasing the exposure of the community rather than assisting structural adjustment that may be more beneficial in the long term."
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.