Figures released this morning from the Insurance Council show the storm that hit parts of the North Island in early-January has cost private insurers nearly $34.2 million.
More than 4,200 claims were made following the storm.
Insurance Council New Zealand Chief Executive, Tim Grafton says, "The storm of early January caused heavy flooding and substantial damage to the Coromandel and Bay of Plenty regions."
Mr Grafton says the towns of Kaiaua and Thames suffered greatly.
Over 3000 of the claims made were domestic, costing $19,120,299.
Another 685 were commercial claims costing $11,714,690.
"The cost of this storm demonstrates the importance of adapting to climate change and putting processes and infrastructure improvements in place that minimise the costs and impacts of these events," Mr Grafton says.
"As time goes on, we expect these sorts of events to become both more frequent and more severe. Every dollar spent on adaptation now will be more than repaid in future savings."
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