Insurers are waiting for floodwaters in Central Europe to recede before estimating their losses from record floods that caused widespread damage and forced tens of thousands to evacuate homes.

Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic have been hard-hit by the floods, which also affected Switzerland, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. Austria’s meteorological service reported that two months of rain fell in two days as rivers including the Elbe, Danube, Inn and Vltava broke their banks.

“It is not yet clear as to the financial damage of the flooding given the large geographic reach of these rivers,” catastrophe modeller Eqecat said.

Allianz board member Clem Booth says it will take some time before the full extent of damage is known, but to date it appears the impact is less than that incurred in the floods of 2002.

“Many people are making parallels to 2002,” he said. “However, we are not seeing the same extent of damage yet.”

Economic damage from the 2002 Central Europe flooding was estimated at around $US16.5 billion ($17.48 billion). Insured losses were about €3 billion ($4.2 billion), reflecting the low penetration of flood insurance.