Floods costly for insurance firms

Press, 5 October 1985, Page 12

Floods costly for insurance firms

PA Wellington Natural disasters, mainly flooding and storms, have cost insurance companies |l7 million since January, and SI3IM since the 1968 Wahine storms. The New Zealand Insurance Council’s figures show 1985 as a record year for flooding, with seven major floods in six regions costing SI7M in compensation. The most devastating and expensive flood this year, in the Thames-Coromandel region in January, cost $5.9 million, followed by Auckland floods in May which cost $3.6M. The remaining $7.5M was distributed to flood victims

in Wellington-Hutt Valley, Hawke’s Bay-Wairarapa, South Auckland, and most recently, Gisborne. However, while 1985 remains the busiest year for floods, insurance companies have paid out only a small portion of the SS2M claimed in 1984. The Invercargill-South-land floods last year cost; 145.8 M alone, by far the worst flood disaster on record. A spokesman for the New Zealand Insurance Council . said the figures did not include compensation paid out by the Earthquake and War Damage Commission, ; nor did they allow for infla- > tion.