There have been 7107 claims lodged since flooding began in north Queensland on January 29, the Insurance Council of Australia says. 

ICA told insuranceNEWS.com.au today there were 5485 home claims, 1086 motor claims and 536 commercial claims. Townsville City accounted for 4010 of the total.

Road closures and energy outages hampered claims submissions, which escalated as residents regained power and access to their homes after two weeks of extreme rain.

ICA has declared it a significant insurance event, which is below catastrophe status, and Suncorp says it does not expect the damage to match that caused by floods in Townsville in 2019. That event led to insured losses of more than $1.3 billion from more than 30,000 claims.  

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has said the post-flood “road to recovery is a long one”.

“It’s about building back stronger than ever, and our government is up to the challenge of delivering that,” he said.

A year ago, Cyclone Jasper 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.