20 largest insurance losses:

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Tue 10/04/2007 22:31

Thought this was interesting...
$180m is phenomenal for Giselle!!

$80m should be added to Bay of Islands there.
West of NZ seems to be a relatively safe place to live!

http://www.seeonline.co.nz/Site/2006/Cl ... nge-2.aspx

RWood · Unread post by **RWood** » Tue 10/04/2007 23:57

Giselle damage was far more widespread than most remember...

It all pales by comparison however with the great 1936 storm [see Brenstrum's article on MetService website]. There's no doubt it was the biggest destructive event of the century.

jrj · Unread post by **jrj** » Wed 11/04/2007 08:48

Has inflation been taken into account? ie $168 million in 1968 would be worth around $2,000 million in today's money.

RWood · Unread post by **RWood** » Wed 11/04/2007 09:25

I ssem to recall - no oaths on my life - that it's inflation-adjusted.

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Wed 11/04/2007 12:05

Also the insurance council had the 2006 snow storm costs at $57 million. Unless I've read wrong.

spike_01 · Unread post by **spike_01** » Wed 11/04/2007 12:39

While Giselle is mostly remembered for the Wahine Disaster there was far reaching effects from that Storm...

I was in Waitakaruru, Hauraki Plains when it hit... There was widespread flooding in that area...

KiwiWeather · Unread post by **KiwiWeather** » Wed 11/04/2007 19:01

I note that Cyclone Bola damage is attributed to Northland? I didn't realise that Northland took the bront of this. I flew over to Gisborne and worked as heli-crew member - the area was devastated!!

Brassnz · Unread post by **Brassnz** » Fri 13/04/2007 13:42

Interesting graphic.

Also worth noting that losses from the 1987 Edgecumbe Earthquake were conservatively estimated in 2004 to be NZ$600mil (inflation adjusted to 2004 values). Not weather-related of course, but NZ's most expensive natural disaster in dollar terms since at least the mid-1960s.

Possibly the grand-daddy of them all was the 1931 Napier Earthquake. At the time few insurers covered earthquake-induced fire damage (as a result of huge losses after the 1906 San Francisco 'quake), so insurance claim figures for this event are irrelevant, though some ex-gratia payments were in fact made. But losses were estimated at the time to be in the order of 7,000,000 pounds - and this at a time when the average value of a well-built house was less than 500 pounds.

Regarding Giselle, of the $179mil loss attributed, "only" $46mil was storm damage while $133mil was the cost of the loss of the Wahine (Source: ICNZ). Original 1968 figures were $3.5mil and $10mil respectively.

jrj · Unread post by **jrj** » Fri 13/04/2007 13:56

That answers my question. Ta.