Claims data released by the Insurance Council of New Zealand Te Kāhui Inihua o Aotearoa (ICNZ) revealed that mid-August’s extreme weather resulted in 3,165 general insurance claims with a provisional value of $47.98 million.
The Nelson Tasman District accounted for 1,248 private insurer claims with a provisional value of $21.64 million, while the rest of Aotearoa New Zealand (including Marlborough), saw 1,917 claims valued at $26.35 million.
"This was a devastating event for communities in Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds in particular that will take a long time to recover from," said ICNZ chief executive Tim Grafton.
"It has been more difficult for some by the time taken to deal safely and methodically with the event. In a hillside area of Nelson, this is necessitating extensive geotechnical work to ensure the land has stopped moving. This is now being followed up with site specific damage assessments."
"Once all the assessments are safely completed, the final claims data for August’s event will likely be higher", Grafton added. "This is a difficult time for all involved and yet another reminder of the urgency with which incoming councils must deal with building resilience to climate change."
ICNZ also released final claims data for 9-14 June floods. Preliminary figures of 3,146 claims valued at $15.45 million have been finalised at 3,552 claims worth $20.34m.
As of October 12, the running total for general insurance losses for extreme weather events in has reached $298 million, according to ICNZ, excluding costs met by EQC, councils and the NZ Transport Agency.
