Heavy rain and flash flooding continues to affect the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales.
Sydney was affected by severe rainfall over 7/8 March 2012, with some observatories recording the highest daily rainfall in five years. Sydney’s southern corridor, from Tempe through to Southerland, was especially affected by flash flooding causing road closures and impacting local businesses. Local reports from the suburb of Marrickville indicate that the Cooks River burst its banks causing residents along Riverside Crescent and Dibble Street to evacuate, while further submerging approximately 20 cars. In the Victorian town of Nathalia floodwaters breached both its main levees resulting in the evacuations of all the town’s residents and putting 700 homes under threat.
On March 8, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has declared a catastrophe for New South Wales and Victorian flood zones covering the NSW Riverina, NSW Central West and northern Victoria. The ICA indicate that so far there have been fewer than 4000 claims, mostly for light storm damage, however, they expect this number to greatly increase. The ICA also declared a catastrophe for the inundation of southwest Queensland in late January and early February 2012, with insurers anticipating AUS$111 million from over 5,000 claims for damage to properties, contents, vehicles and businesses. According to Queensland Emergency Management the townships of Bidwell, Tin Can Bay, Rainbow Beach and Goomboorian remain isolated by floodwater.
Flood policies in Australia are currently under review following the recommendations of the National Disaster Insurance Review in response to the devastating floods of January 2011. The ICA has reported that losses from the Queensland floods December 21, 2010 through to January 14, 2011 total AUS$2.38billion. The flooding in 2011 affected a much broader area of Queensland, with significantly higher rainfall than has been observed in 2012. Furthermore the populated regions of the east coast of Queensland, including Brisbane, were affected in 2011 – to date these areas have not been affected.
