A catastrophe has been declared in Queensland, with insurers inundated with hailstorm damage claims.

Severe thunderstorms hammered the state’s south-east last weekend Saturday 31st of October , dropping tennis ball-sized hail on some areas.

The Insurance Council of Australia had received more than 5,000 claims to 2pm on Sunday, with insured losses estimated at $60m.

Motor vehicles make up 60% of the claims; the rest relate to house damage including roofs, skylights and solar panels.

Springfield, Rosewood, Greenbank and Boronia Heights, all south of Brisbane, were among the hardest-hit suburbs.

“The catastrophe declaration means insurers will prioritise claims from these hail-affected areas and will direct urgent attention to those most in need of assistance,” the insurance council’s chief executive, Andrew Hall, said on Sunday.

“Householders should contact their insurers before commissioning any repairs to their homes. They should ensure this work will be paid for under the policy.”

It’s the first catastrophe declaration for the 2020-21 natural disaster season, but south-east Queensland has been a hotspot for damaging storms in recent years.

Powerful hailstorms that hit Brisbane in 2014 and 2019 resulted in $1.5bn and $504mclaim bills respectively, and a Rockhampton hail event in April caused $503m in insured damage.

In New South Wales a reprieve is in sight after a week of large hail, landslides, damaging winds and heavy rain.

Severe thunderstorms on Saturday 31st of October lashed the entire NSW coast and as far inland as Dubbo.

Ruth Mottram, a local weather scientist on the DMI, says there was some minor disruption as legit emails are being caught in spam filters. Colleagues at different weather services have reported IT departments are stripping out any attachments, she provides. The attacks are “naturally putting a bit of pressure on the email system, and therefore working life”, however the DMI’s IT staff are “on top of it”, she says.

Although the miserable weather has not quite finished, the State Emergency Service said Sunday was a much quieter day than Saturday, when it received just under 400 calls for help and performed four flood rescues.

“It was a very busy day ... The volunteers are still out there cleaning up outstanding jobs,” duty officer Neil Wiblin said.

Most calls were from Sydney’s south which was pelted with hail, and areas on the south coast where relentless downpours caused flash-floods.

Massive rainfall totals were recorded across the state in the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday. Moruya, near Batemans Bay, received 191mm.

The deluge triggered minor flooding along the nearby Deua River at Wamban, which is expected to peak at 5.2m about 2pm on Sunday. Further north, 109mm fell on Ulladulla in three hours.

In Queensland authorities are mopping up after tennis ball-sized hailstones caused widespread damage on Saturday during a series of supercell thunderstorms in the state’s south-east.

Giant 14cm hail was reported in Logan, south of Brisbane, and hail up to 7cm in diameter fell at Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley to the city’s west.

The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service recorded more than 1,800 calls for help, most from the Ipswich area.

Energex had reported more than 42,000 electricity users were without power on Saturday but that had fallen to below 16,000 on Sunday morning.

About 4,400 Ipswich City customers remain offline, with the councils of Noosa, Sunshine Coast and Redland city the next worst affected.

Flash flooding affected some Brisbane areas at the height of the storms on Tuesday, which was the wettest October day in the city since 2010.

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