Bill for Storm Desmond likely to be £520m, say insurers
- Published
A Carlisle resident makes his way through the floodwater
The insurance bill for the floods in Cumbria and the North earlier this month is likely to hit £520m, the industry has said.
Customers have put in no fewer than 23,700 claims for property damage, after Storm Desmond caused torrential rain in parts of the region.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said the storm was on a scale which it expects to see every year.
Over 4,000 affected businesses have put in claims for damage.
The ABI said that so far, insurance companies had already paid out £1.7m to residential customers and £900,000 to commercial customers.
The £520m expected bill makes the storm much more serious than the floods in Cumbria in 2009, which caused £200m of damage.
However, the floods in Somerset and the Thames Valley two years ago cost insurers £1.3bn.
And the summer floods in South Yorkshire and Tewkesbury in 2007 cost more than £3bn.