Insurance companies are expecting to see a moderate rise in property and vehicle insurance claims by next week following massive flooding in Greater Jakarta since Tuesday night.

Adira Insurance chief executive officer Julian Noor said most of the property claims would be filed by insurance policy holders a week after the initial disaster as they prioritized evacuating their families and belongings from their homes.

“There will definitely be a rise in insurance claims, but we still cannot predict how much as the flood is still happening,” he told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Thursday.

He added that the figure would depend on how many people expanded their insurance to cover flood risks as they were not included in most standard policies for both property and vehicle insurance.

The highest rainfall in over a decade, which started on New Year’s Eve, has caused massive flooding across Greater Jakarta, killing at least 26 people as of Thursday afternoon and forcing around 19,000 to flee their homes. Pictures and videos circulating the internet showed houses inundated and cars and motorcycles being swept away by heavy currents.

MNC Insurance executive director Sylvy Setiawan said the company had prepared a hotline and towing services for anyone who needed to move their cars and motorcycles to safety.

“We are expecting to receive many claims because the floods hit Greater Jakarta all at once,” she said, adding that MNC Insurance had evacuated five vehicles from flooded areas at the time of reporting.

She also estimated there would be a moderate rise in insurance claims, especially for property, by the end of the week or when floodwaters have subsided.

“Many people do not have insurance policies that cover flooding because they do not live in a flood-prone area, but now they are affected by flooding,” Sylvy said.

According to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Greater Jakarta experienced 377 millimeters of rain on Tuesday evening, the most since 2007 when rainfall peaked at 340 mm in one day.

Indonesian General Insurance Association (AAUI) chairman Dadang Sukresna said the rise in insurance claims might not be significant as most vehicle insurance owners were bound by their bank or leasing insurance policies, which did not cover flood risk.

AAUI executive director Doddy Dalimunthe, however, said those companies would experience an accumulation of insurance claims as flooding had hit the capital and its surrounding areas at once.

“We cannot give an estimation yet because the companies are still collecting the data,” he said.

Doddy did not expect the claims to have a major impact on the insurance sector as companies had mitigated catastrophic disaster risks through reinsurance efforts.

Moreover, the standard insurance policy for both property and vehicles do not include coverage for flooding, so the rise in claims will not be “too drastic” as compared to last year’s accumulated claims value.

According to the association’s data, property insurance claims in the first quarter of 2019 amounted to Rp 1.6 trillion (US$114.9 million) while the claims for vehicles reached Rp 2 trillion.

Doddy advised flood victims to check their property and vehicle insurance policies to see whether they covered flood risks. He also urged them to refrain from starting their inundated cars to prevent further damages and to immediately call AAUI for towing services.

Nabilah Amyra, 25, a resident of Bekasi, West Java, is among the thousands who have been displaced. She conceded that her vehicle insurance did not cover flood risks.

“My family’s car and motorcycle are still underwater at my house because we were not able to move them during the flood,” she said, adding that floodwaters had reached a depth of approximately 1 meter on Thursday.

“I didn’t think I need flood insurance because I didn’t expect that such a massive flood could happen so fast. If we had more time, we could have moved the car, at least.”

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