Auckland worst hit as IAG notes sharp rise in weather damage claims

The country’s largest insurer IAG says property damage claims from bad weather are up a third on last year.

It has released its Wild Weather Tracker analysing the six months from March to August this year compared to the same time period last year.

It said there have been more than 13,000 claims from the 11 significant storms in the past six months, which was one fewer large event than the previous year.

Auckland suffered the largest share of the damage, making 37 percent of all claims, while Canterbury made 10 percent and Wellington 8 percent.

A flooded street in Greenlane, Auckland, last March.
Photo: RNZ / Katie Todd

NIWA (the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) reported that more than a month’s worth of rain fell in about 10 hours in Auckland’s March event.

IAG also issued its latest update on the damage from the storm in the Nelson/ Tasman/ Marlborough region in August.

It said it has paid out, or is in the process of paying out, about $20 million to more than 1700 customers.

Danger from climate change compounding risk

IAG said the lack of action on climate change was putting New Zealanders at risk.

Its chief meteorologist, Dr Bruce Buckley, said the country was now susceptible to the compounding effects of sea levels, warming seas, and damaging tropical weather systems from climate change.

“Warmer air holds more water,” he said.

“Right now, there are tropical moisture sources that can hold 20 percent more water in the air than what we typically saw a generation ago. So, the August floods in Nelson Tasman are a classic example of warmer tropical seas feeding greater quantities of moisture into extremely damaging, heavy rainbands.”

He said in the past tropical cyclones would weaken before they reached Aotearoa, but warmer sea temperatures meant large, damaging systems will get closer and closer – meaning they can be increasingly severe.

A house sits in a precarious position in the Wellington suburb of Brooklyn after heavy rain in August.
Photo: RNZ / Kent Atkinson

Poll shows NZers concerned about climate change

IAG today also released a nationwide poll, where New Zealanders were asked about their concerns and levels of preparation for severe weather.

It found that 71 percent of people agreed climate change was a key contributor to wild weather, but only 40 percent have taken action to prepare in the past six months.

Other key findings:

• 82 percent believe wild weather is increasing in frequency and severity
• 69 percent of people are concerned about the potential impacts of wild weather
• 40 percent have taken precautions to prepare for wild weather in the past six months
• 42 percent are either not at all prepared or only a little prepared for a storm

The insurer said the data painted a clear picture that despite New Zealanders being concerned about and increasingly impacted by climate change, too little was being done at an individual, community or government level to help mitigate its effects.

In August, IAG released a three-step plan for for addressing the risk from river flooding, which included a call to stop building in flood-prone places.

It said it has now met with the government to discuss the plan, but was still waiting for decisions or commitments.

IAG includes the brands: State, NZI, NAC, Lumley and Lantern, and data from the tracker also came from the insurance products of BNZ, ASB, Westpac and the Co-operative Bank.

Ipsos did the poll, with the research done in August from a nationwide sample of 1003 people.