The number of claims for damage caused by Ex-Cyclone Alfred had risen above 34,000 by noon today, as the Insurance Council of Australia held “crucial” talks with government agencies about the industry’s response to the storm.

ICA is also stepping up its push for more action on flood insurance affordability, convening a meeting with insurance leaders from Britain, Canada and New Zealand to tackle the “shared challenge”.

“A consistent theme across our nations is that insurance is a key part of the solution, but real change requires collaboration across industry, government and communities,” ICA said on LinkedIn. “By working together, we can build a more resilient future – one where fewer people are left behind when disaster strikes.”

At this morning’s talks, the National Emergency Management Agency and other government bodies were told insurers have made almost $2.4 million of emergency cash payments to almost 6000 policyholders, generally for items such as food spoilage and temporary accommodation.

“Ongoing dialogue with our partners in government is crucial to ensuring that resources are deployed where they are needed most,” ICA CEO Andrew Hall said.

The agencies were also told insurers have brought in hundreds of additional claims consultants, engaged round-the-clock major event response teams during the storm’s active phase, pre-reserved temporary accommodation for customers, and secured a strong network of builder and supplier capacity in potentially affected areas.

“While claims types differ from region to region, insurers reported that pre-event concerns about large numbers of severe wind damage claims have not been realised, with some customers in localised areas making flood claims and many more thousands ... across the path of the event making claims related to storm-driven water damage and food spoilage due to power outages,” ICA says.

The latest claims tally was up 50% on yesterday’s total and Mr Hall says numbers are “increasing significantly each day, with more than 34,000 claims now received by insurers, the large majority from Queensland”. 

Home damage accounts for the bulk of claims lodged so far in southeast Queensland and north NSW.

The 31,830 claims from Queensland comprise 29,119 for home, 1478 for motor and 1233 for commercial. North NSW’s 2418 claims feature 2122 for home, 153 for motor and 143 for commercial.

IAG says it had received more than 4000 claims – mostly related to property damage from wind and water ingress – by 7am today.

MD and CEO Nick Hawkins says the insurer “significantly bolstered our claims team and are leveraging our capability to bring on additional claims support from around Australia and New Zealand, to ensure we help customers as quickly as possible. To further strengthen our response, we’ve increased the size of our internal property assessor team, including additional specialists from our New Zealand business.”

Broker Aon says preliminary numbers “show a significant burden on the insurance sector”, although it is too early to determine Alfred’s financial impact and implications for the local (re)insurance market.

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