From hail the size of golf balls to wind gusts of up to 140km/h that pummelled Brisbane on Thursday evening, insurers are bracing for a barrage of expensive claims in what could be the costliest natural disaster for years.
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Insurers such as Suncorp Group and Insurance Australia Group have been fielding thousands of phone calls from distressed Brisbane residents who saw their properties damaged during a ferocious storm Thursday evening.
Campbell Fuller, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Australia, said insurers had fielded 8100 claims of about $61 million since 9am on Friday.
"The split of that is 4500 claims are for home and contents, and 3600 are motor vehicles," he told Fairfax Media.
"We expect this will rise quickly and sharply, as more customers contact their insurer or insurance brokers start talking to their customers," he said.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said Thursday night's super-storm was the worst to hit the city in 30 years.
Mr Newman, who asked the federal government to deploy Australian Defence Force personnel from Enogerra Barracks to help with the clean-up, said he expected the damage bill to top $100 million. He said the storm injured 39 people, 12 of whom were taken to hospital.
"It was a terrible storm but thankfully, no one's been seriously injured or worse," Mr Newman said.
A Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said the damaging wind was the equivalent to a category 2 cyclone, but he said the severity and scope of the storm was similar to the 2008 storms, which had a total damage bill of $86 million.
Several government buildings were closed on Friday because of fallen trees and damage to glass windows. About 19 schools, including prestigious private school Brisbane Grammar, St Josephs College Gregory Terrace and All Hallows, were closed on Friday because of extensive damage.
An apartment complex in Coronation Drive near Toowong had its roof ripped off by the 140km/h winds, while about 800 power lines were brought down.
On Friday morning, 80,000 people were still without power as Energex worked to restore services.
The super-cell storm cut a swath through Brisbane's south-western suburbs, flipping over light planes at Archerfield Airport. Some of the worst-affected suburbs included Yeerongapilly, Sherwood, Corinda, Indooroopilly and St Lucia.
A spokeswoman from Insurance Australia Group said heavy rain, strong winds and hail caused widespread damage.
Brisbane-based lawyer Clint Quinlivan said the family car he uses for commuting suffered hail damage, and he was still trying to lodge a claim with his insurer.
"My car received a lot of dings and dents in pretty much every panel," he said.
"We have tried calling our insurer but they have been so inundated with calls that we simply couldn't get through last night, we are trying again today to contact them to report the damage to our car," Mr Quinlivan said.
Hailstorms are dreaded by insurance companies. While often short lived, they can wreak expensive damage to properties and vehicles.
Data from the ICA showed the severe hailstorm that hit Sydney in 1999 cost insurers $1.7 billion, or $4.3 billion in normalised costs in 2011.
Hail that damaged parts of Western Sydney and Blacktown in 2007 cost $415 million.
"To date, IAG brands have received more than 2000 claims from NRMA Insurance, CGU, Coles and Lumley customers," she said. "Most claims relate to hail damage to cars, with some storm damage to homes. Our priority is to assist our customers as quickly as we can, we urge anyone whose car or home was damaged by the storm to lodge a claim."
Deutsche Bank insurance analyst Kieren Chidgey said it was still too early to say what the ultimate insurance losses from the event would be.
Queensland's biggest insurer, Suncorp, was more exposed to this event given its strong market share in the state, he said. "Excluding CTP [not impacted by CAT events], we estimate SUN wrote $1.6 billion of GWP in Qld in FY14, double the $800 billion written by IAG in FY14," he wrote in a note to clients.
Suncorp said it had received about 1600 motor and 1000 home claims by 11am. The company makes provisions for natural hazards and has an allowance of $595 million for events in the 2015 financial year.
At least 38 buildings in Brisbane's CBD have been damaged from the storm with 70 windows destroyed. One building owned by Queensland Investment Corporation had 34 windows wrecked leaving a bill of tens of thousands of dollars.
JLL's national director of engineering and operations for Queensland, Wayne Strickland, said his team and contractors had been working through the night to repair the destruction.
"We have had 10 ceiling collapses, five glass awnings smashed, airconditioning and plants on the top of buildings have also been damaged by the hail," Mr Strickland said.
He said there were at least three buildings where tenants were not yet able to go back to work, and numerous floors in other buildings were still out of bounds.
"We have also had a lot of lifts and travelators out and there is a lot of water extraction taking place in areas such as car parks."
Tree removalists and cleaners have been deployed throughout the city.
Other major asset managers are also reporting even further damage to additional buildings.
