Last week’s wild winds peaking on Thursday left a path of destruction on farming properties.
Power, water and communications were knocked out, trees, machinery and centre pivot irrigators bowled over and in some cases farm buildings were toppled.
Major rural insurer FMG has received an initial tally of more than 900 weather-related claims, over 450 of which were for the Otago and Southland regions.
The insurer is expecting further claims as power is restored to farming districts and after farmers finish making running repairs and can complete assessments.
FMG strategic operations head of claims Jacqui McIntosh said the company was supporting clients hit by the recent windstorm events across the country.
Severe winds had caused widespread damage to rural properties and significantly disrupted farming operations, she said.
“‘To date we’ve received over 900 weather related claims with about half of these from the Canterbury region.
“It’s still early days, and we expect these numbers to rise with state of emergencies still in place and major utilities still out in some areas. It is also always important to note that claims data does not give a full picture of the true impact experienced by farmers and growers.”
Claims coming in included damaged roofs and farm buildings, damaged fencing as well as damaged irrigators, particularly in North Canterbury.
“We’ve had loss adjusters out in affected regions visiting clients since Friday. We’re progressing claims to resolve them as fast we can to help our clients recover from these events. We’re working with irrigation companies, such as WaterForce, who are flying in irrigator build crews from Australia and they’ve placed orders with manufacturers already. We know how important it is to get this critical farming equipment back up and running and we’re doing all we can to help make this happen.”
FMG is recommending clients contact them as soon as possible to lodge claims even if they do not have all the details and to take as many photographs of damage before items are thrown out to support claims.
That includes photographs before essential repairs are made.
