The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) today provided updated data on the storms and floods that impacted South-East Queensland and coastal New South Wales in February and March, showing that the event is estimated to be Australia’s costliest flood ever. Using actual claims costs from 197,000 claims across both states, the event is estimated to have cost $3.35 billion in insured losses. This makes the event the costliest flood in Australia’s history, and the fifth most costly disaster after the Eastern Sydney Hailstorm (1999, $5.57 billion), Cyclone Tracey (1974, $5.04 billion), Cyclone Dinah (1967, $4.69 billion) and the Newcastle Earthquake (1989, $4.24 billion). All normalised to 2017 values. Download the full media release here. (PDF)