A house in Lucknow Tce after a slip crashed down from a property in Havelock Rd, Hospital Hill, among the damage in a storm now costing insurers over $70 million. Photo / File
A house in Lucknow Tce after a slip crashed down from a property in Havelock Rd, Hospital Hill, among the damage in a storm now costing insurers over $70 million. Photo / File
The Napier flood has cost insurers $72 million.
Insurance Council figures released to Hawke's Bay Today show the November 9 storm, which dumped more than 200mm of rain in 12 hours, is the fourth most costly natural disaster since the Kaikoura earthquake in 2016, calculated to have cost $2.27 billion.
A preliminary report prepared for Napier City Council meetings earlier this month, revealed it had been the wettest day in Napier in 57 years, and the second-wettest in the history of written records.
A report prepared for a committee meeting on December 9 said that as at November 26 there were still 115 dwellings that were uninhabitable, 386 that were flood damaged but still inhabitable, and a further 589 that were "flood-affected".
Almost 40 roads and hill steps had been hit by mainly slip-damage, some of them still closed at the time of the report, while damage to council property included flooding of the Rodney Green Centennial Events Centre (the Centennial Hall) at McLean Park, the hall now being closed to sports for up to 18 months.
It was one of five council buildings that "suffered surface water ingress and likely to incur significant costs to remedy", including museum and arts centrepiece the MTG, where there was a "waterfall" down to the basement level, but no loss of collection items.
The November 9 storm dumped more than 200mm of rain in 12 hours. Photo / Paul Taylor
Separately it has been reported that vehicle claims with just two of the companies totalled more than 1050, while IAG was said to have more than 900 property claims from home owners, more than 500 contents claims, and more than 160 business damage and disruption claims.
Meanwhile, the Insurance Council says insurers are paying more than $200 million across the "severe" weather events of the nation in 2020, with the recent Napier and Plimmerton events to be added.
Chief executive Tim Grafton said provisional figures show about 12,000 claims have been met to help customers get back on their feet."
"The uncertainty 2020 delivered (a reference to the Covid-19 pandemic) was magnified by the number of flood and other severe weather events right across the country," he said.
At the other extreme was the Ohau fire in the South Island.
Grafton says climate change means "weather events" are becoming more "frequent and extreme", reinforcing the importance of insurance at a time the council believes about one-third of home-owners may be under-insured.
