Insurance Council declares catastrophe as damage bill tops $40 million

The cost of Sunday’s supercell is in the tens of millions as thousands of Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay and Brisbane residents inundate insurers for smashed cars and roofs.

THE peak body of the insurance industry has declared a catastrophe following yesterday’s devastating storms across Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

The monster system brought cricket-ball-sized hailstones that smashed windscreens and damaged homes from Chermside to Alexandra Headland.

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The Insurance Council of Australia said more than 5000 claims had been made by this afternoon costing an estimated $40 million.

Around 3000 of those claims were for motor vehicles, according to a council spokesman.

Declaring a catastrophe means insurers will commit additional resources to speeding up the processing of claims.

RACQ spokeswoman Lucinda Ross said damage was widespread from the Sunshine to the Gold Coast.

Property pummeled by cricket-ball-size hail

VIEW GALLERY

“We’re seeing some vehicles with very bad damage,” Ms Ross said.

“We are getting claims from right across the southeast.”

The motoring body reported it had received 1250 motor vehicle claims and another 298 home claims so far.

“We do expect that number to rise over the coming days,” Ms Ross said.

She urged residents to take precautions as southeast Queensland moved into storm season.

“Clear your gutters of leaves and any debris, as well as anything that could become a projectile in strong winds.”

Hail damage in Palmview after Sunday’s storm.

Weather bureau meteorologist Kimba Wong said a nasty supercell that slammed into areas near the Glasshouse Mountains and Caloundra was responsible for the most severe damage.

“We had reports of some cricket-ball-sized hail which was associated with that storm,” she said.

She said 2cm to 4cm hail also fell on Brisbane’s northside and on the Gold Coast.

The storms brought little relief from the bushfire crisis, with the worst conditions expected tomorrow.

“We are looking at fire dangers starting to increase a little bit as well, as temperatures start to climb into the middle of this week,” Ms Wong said.

Palmview resident Frank Pinto, 61, was at the movies when it started to hail on Sunday, and returned to his property to find his brand new $8,800 solar panel system smashed.

“They’ve been up there 12 days, and 27 out of 40 panels are just destroyed,” Mr Pinto said.

“Hopefully it’s insured, because we’ve only been here two weeks.”

“We were just starting to get on top of things, because moving is so stressful, and then you get hit by another delay,” he said.