COST OF STORM STILL UNKNOWN

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31661, 23 April 1968, Page 1

COST OF STORM STILL UNKNOWN

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, April 22.

An estimate of the cost of the storm damage to New Zealand earlier this month was still months away, the secretary of the Earthquake and War Damage Commission (Mr J. L. Gill) said today.

Not 1 per cent of the assessors' reports had been returned to the commission as yet, be said. Mr Gill said payments on some claims would start tomorrow. These, and most payments for the next few weeks, would be for small claims in the $4OO to $6OO bracket. Larger claims would take some months to settle, he said.

The commission has received 4263 claims. The commission's assessor for the Wellington area (Mr T M. Chandler) said his office had received more than 2000 claims so far. He believed that the commission still had many claims to pass on to the assessors. ADDITIONAL WORK Mr Chandler said his firm was processing up to 150 claims a day. Normally, the firm was geared to handle between 60 and 80 a week. It was impossible to estimate the value of claims filed so far, Mr Chandler said. “We are still waiting for many builders to return assessment forms for emergency work they did over the Easter week-end,” he said. “Until we get them we are held up with the claims.”