More claims are expected as north Queensland residents regain power and access to their homes after two weeks of extreme rainfall.

There have been 6157 claims since the flooding began on January 29, the Insurance Council of Australia says.

Severe weather warnings were lifted today as monsoon trough conditions eased. Power has been restored to towns such as Paluma after more than a week of outages, and most of the more than 300 flood-hit roads and some bridges are back in action or close to it.

Suncorp consumer insurance CEO Lisa Harrison says 1400 claims had been lodged with the insurer by yesterday.

Road closures and power outages have hampered claims lodgement and more are expected as access improves, she says. But Suncorp does not expect the damage to match that arising from floods in Townsville in 2019. That event led to insured losses of more than $1.3 billion from more than 30,000 claims.

“Certainly, we haven’t seen the extent of damage we saw in 2019 but ... we do expect over the next couple of days for those [claim] numbers to continue to climb. The most impacted areas are Ingham and Cardwell, and they’ve been without power in some parts.”

Major flood warnings remain in place for the Herbert and Flinders rivers, and state Disaster Recovery Minister Ann Leahy says the clean-up and rebuild “will be complex” and take time. 

Premier David Crisafulli says the “road to recovery is a long one”.

“This flood event has left a trail of destruction across the north – devastating homes, businesses and critical infrastructure,” he said. “It’s about building back stronger than ever, and our government is up to the challenge of delivering that.”

Newly appointed state recovery co-ordinator Andrew Cripps will oversee the process and says it “will no doubt be lengthy and difficult”.

Insurers are expanding support to residents in Ingham, Cardwell, Mission Beach, Tully and Innisfail, with in-person support at Ingham’s TAFE. An insurance hub at Townsville Stadium will remain open until Saturday.

“ICA ... is prioritising the safety of both the local community and its own team members. As soon as it is safe to do so across broader parts of the region, insurers will ensure their availability to speak with policyholders,” CEO Andrew Hall said.

A year ago, Cyclone Jasper affected a 160km stretch of coastline from Townsville to Cooktown, bringing a week of torrential rain. It led to 10,400 claims and insured losses of $410 million, with a $36,000 average claim cost – the highest across all declared events that fiscal year.