Insurance claims soar as residents return to flood-ravaged homes

Hundreds of homeowners across North Queensland have already filed claims for flood damage, but insurance companies say it’s only the tip of the iceberg with many yet to return home and some not likely to have insurance at all.

Hundreds of homeowners across North Queensland have already filed claims for flood damage, but insurance companies believe it’s only the tip of the iceberg as residents in isolated communities expected to return to unlivable homes.

Insurance providers are seeing an influx of claims as a result of flooding in North Queensland, however initial numbers have not included towns such as Ingham and Cardwell that have been hardest hit.

On Wednesday morning, Suncorp had received 665 claims from customers in North Queensland, but with the situation still evolving they are expecting numbers to surge.

With limited access to hard hit communities such as Ingham and Cardwell, the team had been using their daily satellite imagery and flood mapping to understand the extent of the current and potential flooding on communities such as Ingham.

“Our satellite flood mapping, which is updated multiple times a day, has provided near real time insight into the flood inundation into that community,” Suncorp Executive General Manager Home Claims Customers, Alli Smith said.

Flooding in Ingham on Tuesday. Picture: Cameron Bates

“We can see through our flood mapping there are hundreds of homes that have had water inundation into the parcel of land, at this stage we still don’t know how severe that flooding is in terms of over floorboard flooding.”

There are no current indications into damage costs, but Ms Smith said they did not expect to see the level of damage as they did during Cyclone Jasper.

With new weather warnings tipping another 200mm or more to fall over coming days in some areas, Ms Smith said they would be monitoring the situation very closely.

RACQ and regional provider Sure Insurance on Tuesday had received 219 and 291 claims respectively, with both expecting numbers to increase in the coming days.

Sure Insurance Managing Director Bradley Heath revealed they already had close to 30 homeowners come back to “unlivable homes”.

“It’s something that’s very distressing for customers when they returned home to a flooded house,” he said.

Cardwell resident Ian Rowe has lived in his Roma Street house for 36 years, and has never seen floodwaters rise as high as they did Sunday night. Picture: Brendan Radke

“We do expect more and obviously across the insurance industry, we’re going to see more of those sort of claims.”

There are also concerns about the number of North Queenslanders uninsured due to the cost of premiums, with Insurance Council of Australia Andrew Hall saying the current system does not benefit the homeowner.

“We’re very aware of it (those choosing not to insure) and it’s been a big focus of the industry, especially since the 2022 flood events, so we have been working with government at the federal level. We work with state governments, because the key to dealing with it is risk reduction.

“If you can reduce the risk, you can normalise the insurance market in that area,” Mr Hall said.

“What this does underscore, though, is that flood is our most expensive insurable event in Australia.”

The Cardwell home of David and Tracy Ebert after floodwaters came through. Picture: Brendan Radke

The latest data from the ACCC in 2020 suggested approximately one in five north Queenslanders, or more than 62,000 properties, were uninsured due to affordability.

“We really need to look at what is the cost, the real cost, of some of the hard infrastructure that is needed to protect, particularly, really important commercial towns and then work with those communities on other solutions which could be either hard infrastructure like levies, house raising, or in extreme circumstances, buy back and relocation.”