Insurance flood bill hits $19.7m

Close to $20 million in insurance claims have been paid out for the damage from the Southland floods in February.

Throughout Southland, Fiordland and Clutha, $19.7m had been received in insurance claims from heavy flooding that hit the region.

Of that, $7.3m were in house and content claims, $900,000 in vehicle damaged claims and $11.4 million was claimed in the damage to commercial property and interruption to business.

A State of Emergency was declared at the time and 2400 residents from Gore, Mataura and Wyndham were evacuated from their homes.

In Fiordland, hundreds of tourists and residents needed to be airlifted out of Milford Sound after they became stuck when landslips closed Milford Rd.

It only reopened to the public in March.

Insurance Council of New Zealand chief executive Tim Grafton said while the statistics didn’t divide the claims between regions the majority of claims would have been in Southland excluding Fiordland.

Close to $20m was a fairly large number for natural disaster to affect one region, Grafton said.

‘‘These figures reinforce the scale of damage that a flood can cause.’’

Cyclones such as Gita and Fehi that hit New Zealand in 2018 had a larger sum of claims but were made across a wider area, he said.

The Timaru hail storm last year in November had the largest sum of insurance claims for a natural disaster in the past five years at $83m.

Nationwide, flooding in December that particularly hit the Southern Lakes area cost $17m in insurance claims.

Climate change would see an increase in extreme weather events and it showed the importance of having insurance, Grafton said.

‘‘It is clear that we need to adapt to the changes we are seeing and take steps to reduce risks where possible to minimise the social impact and cost.

‘‘Flood prone areas of New Zealand are well known. We need to be mindful of this as we develop new and existing areas of New Zealand to reduce risks for Kiwis.’’

While, $19.7m had been the cost received in insurance claims, the economic impact for the region would be wider, he said.

A roading operations report presented to the Southland District Council in March estimated the cost of flood damage could reach $3m in damaged to infrastructure.

In February, Gore District Council regulatory and community services general manager Dr Ian Davidson-Watts estimated the flood could cost $2m excluding landfill restoration.

The Southland Climate Change Impact Assessment, authored by NIWA, released in August 2018 showed that floods are expected to be larger across the region and the number of heavy rainfall days are expected to increase.

Annual rainfall is predicted to increase by five per cent by midcentury, and as much as 20 per cent by the end of the century, with a larger increase in the northern part of the region, where the rivers flow from.

‘‘These figures reinforce the scale of damage that a flood can cause.’’ Tim Grafton, Insurance Council of New Zealand chief executive