Claim numbers have surged following this week’s southeast Queensland storms, with more than 27,800 received by insurers. 

The total has jumped from more than 16,000 yesterday and claims are expected to continue rolling in as power returns to homes, the Insurance Council of Australia says. 

CEO Andrew Hall says ICA has established an industry-wide taskforce to help manage claims from the event, which was yesterday declared a catastrophe. 

“We encourage anyone who has been impacted by recent storms to lodge a claim with their insurer even if they don’t know the full extent of the damage,” he said. 

“It’s also important to remain on alert for disaster chasers, particularly with more storms predicted for the remainder of the week.” 

Hailstones the size of tennis balls – and some even larger – hit Brisbane suburbs and other southeast Queensland areas on Monday, while wind topping 100km/h brought down trees and power lines. 

Queensland’s Energex said in an update today that 32,000 customers were still without power as it removed fallen trees, replaced poles, rebuilt transformers and repaired feeders and substations. 

“More will be bought back online this afternoon, but unfortunately, others will have another night in the dark,” it said in the Facebook post. 

IAG says it has received 8500 claims across its brands – mainly for motor and home, plus food spoilage. 

Crawford Australia president Jonathan Hubbard said yesterday that hailstones up to 14cm in diameter, intense rainfall and damaging wind caused significant disruption and property damage, and the group anticipates a high volume of claims related to hail, water ingress and associated property impacts. 

“We expect to see claims in both the domestic and commercial sectors, with commercial claims likely to focus on business interruption and prevention of access,” he said. 

ICA deputy CEO Kylie Macfarlane told media it has been a busy start to the storm season, with hail in the region last month generating 28,000 claims and Cyclone Fina hitting northern Australia. 

“This hopefully isn’t a precursor to what’s to come over Christmas, but we are watching the weather carefully,” she said. “We’ve already had a cyclone make landfall in the NT, and we’ve had a number of different convective storm issues in southeast Queensland.” 

The Bureau of Meteorology says more severe thunderstorms are possible today, extending from the northern tropics through eastern districts of Queensland into northeastern NSW.