RACQ have reported that floods which swept through parts of Queensland and northern New South Wales earlier this year were the second costliest extreme weather event in Australia's history, surpassing Cyclone Tracy.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
Over a period of three days in late February, heavy rainfall of more than 400 millimetres was recorded across greater Brisbane, causing severe flooding, closed roads and property damage of more than $5 billion.
In Redlands, homes were evacuated after flash flooding caused damage to houses, businesses and roads. Residents in Boonah were cut off by flood damage to surrounding roads, while flooding in nearby Beaudesert forced the closure of numerous roads.
Authorities described the torrential weather as a "rain bomb", saying there was no way to predict how widespread the floods would be.
Acting Head of Insurance at RACQ Trent Sayers said the floods happened at a time when Queensland was already facing major supply chain issues due to the pandemic.
"The devastation and destruction was unprecedented," Mr Sayers said.
"Not only is the damage widespread, but the types of properties also affected vary from new builds to townhouses and 100 year old homes - many of which require maintenance to be completed by homeowners before the claim repairs can progress."
Six months on, RACQ have completed 97 per cent of home assessments with repairs either having been completed, cash settled, or underway at more than 70,000 properties.
According to figures from the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), the February and March floods incurred insured losses of up to $5.134 billion across South East Queensland and parts of northern New South Wales.
"Insurers continue to employ more people and contractors to resolve claims for impacted customers, however delays are being experienced because of a shortage of experts needed to make assessments and significant constraints on builders and building materials," ICA CEO Andrew Hall said.
Mr Sayers said RACQ and its suppliers had continued to hire more staff to cope with the volume of recovery efforts.
"We have around 2,500 trades and other personnel working on claims from this event, and we continue to deploy additional resources where possible to meet demand," he said.
