NSW Premier Morris Iemma has given insurers until today to avoid a “name and shame” campaign from the State Government.

Faced with upset voters still waiting for repairs to begin on homes damaged by hailstorms on December 9 – the insured ones, anyway – Mr Iemma on Friday gave 20 insurers until today to present a repair plan, or be publicly identified.

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says tradesmen can’t work on wet roofs – half the period since the storm has been wet. To make things worse for the insurers, the Bureau of Meteorology said at the weekend it expects high rainfall levels in Sydney over the next two months.

Insurers have received 58,000 claims from the Sydney hailstorms worth an estimated $388 million, with the subsequent bad weather prompting a further 1500 claims.

ICA spokesman Sean Sampson says insurers have assigned builders to 80% of cases, and repairs have started on 40% of property claims, with 70% of these being “roof repairs where the first priority is to make homes watertight”.

On the good side, the city’s water storage is now at 64% capacity. But for the insurers involved, right now there is no good side.