PERILS has disclosed its fourth and final industry loss estimate for Cyclone Gabrielle which impacted the North Island of New Zealand during the period of 11 to 17 February 2023.
The final estimate of the insurance market loss is NZD 2,174 mn (USD 1,350 mn). This compares to the third loss estimate of NZD 2,018 mn issued by PERILS on 17 August 2023, six months after the event.
The figure is composed of personal lines property losses which represent 51% and commercial lines property losses representing 49% of the total industry loss.
This final industry loss footprint, which is based on detailed loss data collected from the majority of the New Zealand insurance market, provides a comprehensive breakdown of property losses by postcode (high-resolution CRESTA Zones), with the data further divided by residential and commercial lines, and loss amounts split into buildings, contents and business interruption losses where available.
It is complemented with postcode-level maximum wind gusts and rain accumulations.
Cyclone Gabrielle impacted a wide area across the North Island with extreme rainfall of up to 568mm in 48 hours and with maximum wind gusts of up to 146 km/h.
The impact of the heavy rain was exacerbated by saturated soils from previous wet weather, including the North Island flood event, leading to widespread damage to property and critical infrastructure due to flooding, coastal inundation, landslides and high winds. The event also caused the deaths of eleven people.
Cyclone Gabrielle occurred less than two weeks after the North Island Floods which PERILS estimated in its final loss report to have caused an industry loss of NZD 2,230 mn.
Together with Cyclone Gabrielle this brings the total insured loss amount from the two events to NZD 4,404 mn, by far the largest weather-related insurance industry losses in New Zealand’s history.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle was a severe tropical cyclone that devastated parts of the North Island of New Zealand and affected parts of Vanuatu and Australia in February 2023.
It is the costliest tropical cyclone on record in the Southern Hemisphere, with total damages estimated to be at least NZ$13.5 billion (US$8.4 billion), of which the cost of insured damage is at least NZ$1.73 billion (US$1.07 billion).
The total cost in the Hastings District alone is estimated to surpass NZ$2 billion (US$1.25 billion).
It was also the deadliest cyclone and weather event overall to hit New Zealand since Cyclone Giselle in 1968, surpassing Cyclone Bola in 1988.
The fifth named storm of the 2022–23 Australian region cyclone season, and the first severe tropical cyclone of the 2022–23 South Pacific cyclone season, Gabrielle was first noted as a developing tropical low on 6 February 2023, while it was located on the south of the Solomon Islands, before it was classified as a tropical cyclone and named Gabrielle by the Bureau of Meteorology.
The system peaked as a Category 3 severe tropical cyclone before moving into the South Pacific basin, then rapidly degenerated into a subtropical low on 11 February 2023.
