100 Days On, Storm Bill Hits $1.35bn

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday September 18, 2007

By TESS CAMPBELL

A FLOOD of late insurance claims has pushed the cost of the Hunter's devastating June long weekend storm to $1.35 billion, more than double the Cyclone Larry damage bill.

The Insurance Council of Australia said Hunter residents had lodged 90,000 claims, up from the 65,000 reported last month.

More than 100 days after the storm, life still has not returned to normal for hundreds of residents.

In one of the Newcastle streets hit hardest, Gow Street in Hamilton North, most of the residents uprooted by the deluge have yet to return to their flood-damaged homes.

About 75 per cent of houses in the street are filled only with the sounds of builders at work.

Wilga Starkey, a Gow Street resident of 30 years who has moved to Elermore Vale while her home is repaired, returns to the street twice a day to collect mail and drop daughter Hayley at the school bus stop.

"It's been tough on the kids of the street because they were all such good friends and used to play in the street until dark," Ms Starkey said.

Continued Page 2

Storm bill hits $1.35b

From Page 1

The single mother was moved to four different houses since the June 8 storms before her insurer set the family up at Elermore Vale.

"My neighbours' family of seven have moved all the way to Nelson Bay and work hasn't even begun on their house yet," Ms Starkey said.

An insurance council spokesman said the majority of domestic claims arising from the storm, including cars and house contents, had been processed, but some commercial claims had been delayed.

"For the most part, the industry was paying out within 24 hours but poor communication forced delays for some businesses that went through a broker," he said.

The industry had learnt valuable lessons during previous natural disasters like Cyclone Larry, which ravaged the northern Queensland plantation town Innisfail in March last year.

The $1.35 billion bill soars well above previous industry estimates of $1 billion, but the true cost would be much higher when considering road, infrastructure and other repair costs across the Hunter's councils. Alone, the salvage operation for the stricken 40,000 tonne coal carrier, Pasha Bulker, which was wedged on Nobby's Beach for almost a month, cost an estimated $200,000 and $300,000 a day.

The cost of the June storms to the Hunter has almost equalled the $862 million Newcastle earthquake, Australia's second most costly natural disaster.

Comparing costs over time can be hard, but the Reserve Bank shows the 1989 earthquake would have cost insurers $1.38 billion in today's dollars.

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home