Coast from Townsville to Wollongong on severe rain alert

Coastal areas from Townsville in north Queensland down to Wollongong, south of Sydney, may experience severe thunderstorms from tonight, with heavy rainfall and possible damaging winds and large hail.

A Severe Weather Warning has been issued for Tasmania where central parts are set for damaging south-easterly winds, a less usual direction which coupled with more rain and wet soil may lead to trees toppling, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

The alert comes as the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says insurers have received 10,259 claims so far from the insurance catastrophe still unfolding in Australia’s south-east states since heavy rains struck on October 12, up 11% from a day earlier.

Flood-related events have generated more than 569,000 insurance claims valued at $8.8 billion since drought broke in February 2020.

Suncorp said today it had received over 2300 claims so far, mostly home claims in Victoria, and has specialist teams on the ground in recently-flooded Maribyrnong, in Melbourne’s inner north, with crews to head to badly-affected Rochester in the state’s north in coming days.

“We are monitoring the situation closely as it continues to unfold and our mobile Customer Support Teams are ready to be deployed into additional areas once they can safely access those communities,” CEO Steve Johnston said.

Suncorp’s flexible workforce has been activated, with teams working overtime to assist customers in lodging their claims, and Suncorp’s Event Control Centre has turbo-charged the insurer’s disaster readiness and ability to proactively support customers, it says.

Mr Johnston, who visited Maribyrnong on the weekend, says the Event Control Centre is using aerial imagery to ensure resources are sent where most needed.

“While our weather continues to present challenges, we are well equipped to respond, with our business also well protected through our comprehensive reinsurance program,” he said.

The Bureau says showers will continue for southern NSW, Victoria and south-east SA on Wednesday. On Thursday, showers will continue in Victoria and Tasmania and storms will re-develop in eastern NSW and eastern Queensland which the Bureau says will be “possibly severe”.

On Friday, showers will persist in Victoria, southern NSW and Tasmania, and another band of rain and storms will move from central Australia to eastern Queensland and eastern NSW, reaching eastern states on Monday.

“This upcoming rain brings the potential of flash flooding and severe storms,” the Bureau said.

The latest outlook comes as major flooding is underway at the regional towns of Echuca, Moama, Barham, Kerang, Moree, Gunnedah, Narrabri, Hillston, Hay and Condobolin.

Tasmania is forecast to experience damaging south-easterly winds with wind gusts up to 80 km/h in the east, south-east and parts of the north. The heaviest rainfall period will be overnight tonight and into the morning.