Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred impact 'not as significant as first feared': ICA

By Rebecca Delaney

March 17 - (The Insurer) - Insurers have received more than 63,000 insurance claims following ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, the Insurance Council of Australia said on Monday.

An additional 10,000 claims were submitted over the weekend, the majority of which related to food spoilage, wind damage and water ingress.

Alfred was downgraded to a tropical low on March 8 after making landfall on the Queensland coast at around 8 p.m. local time.

The majority of claims to date (58,774) have been filed in Queensland, with the remaining 4,898 claims filed in New South Wales.

More than 90% of all claims are associated with home insurance, with commercial and motor insurance lines both accounting for 4% of total claims.

Kylie Macfarlane, deputy CEO of the ICA, said the increasing claims count indicates that clean-up and recovery efforts are "well underway" in affected regions.

"While it is still too early to predict the total insured loss from this weather event, the claims data shows that the event is not as significant as first feared across the majority of the impacted zones," Macfarlane continued.

"If there are any policyholders who know they have damage but are yet to lodge a claim, we encourage them to get in touch with their insurer as soon as they can and get the process underway, even if the full extent of the damage is not yet know."

The last cyclone to cause significant damage in Australia was 2023’s Tropical Cyclone Jasper, which cost A$409 million from around 10,500 claims. The costliest cyclone to hit the country was 1974's Cyclone Tracy, which cost A$7.4 billion normalised to 2023 values.

The floods of early 2022 remain the costliest insured event in Australia’s history with A$6.4 billion in insured losses across more than 245,000 claims.