Queensland-NSW floods just seasonal weather

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30 January 2012

Floods and heavy rain across Queensland and northern NSW last week will not earn the catastrophe status applied to last year’s floods.

Insurance Council of Australia spokesman Campbell Fuller says the event will not be declared a catastrophe.

Widespread flooding across Queensland in January last year resulted in 58,463 insurance claims worth $2.4 billion.

“The scale this time hasn’t been in that kind of area,” Mr Fuller told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “We are expecting several thousand claims.

“For that part of the country it’s seasonal weather and in most cases, communities are fairly well prepared.”

An NRMA Insurance spokesman says the insurer has received 700 claims so far, mostly for damage to home and contents.

Record rains lashed areas of Queensland last week and resulting flashfloods cut roads to
Mount Isa and the east-west railway line at Emerald in the central highlands, where the giant Fairbairn Dam has started to overflow.

Queensland’s State Emergency Service handled about 600 jobs over the weekend for roof damage and minor water inundation.

While clouds are expected to clear from the central Queensland coast by tomorrow, flood warnings are still in place for areas around the NSW-Queensland border and a monsoon system is forming off the coast near Cairns.