The damage bill from Queensland’s flood disaster could top $1 billion as thousands of homeowners begin to assess the scale of damage across the southeast.

The Insurance Council of Australia says that more than 37,800 SEQ claims have been lodged to date, but it is still too early to pinpoint the overall cost.

However, the clean-up is underway as the state’s mud army collects tonnes of flood-damaged items that continue to pile up outside homes and businesses. 

“It’s clear that the flooding disaster emergency here in the southeast is not over yet, but the recovery process has begun,” Deputy Premier Steven Miles said on Wednesday. 

“Early estimates suggest that the damage bill for this disaster could be up to a billion dollars.”

As floodwaters slowly begin to recede, volunteers are racing against mother nature with potentially severe storms forecast to batter the southeast in coming days.

More than 8000 volunteers have signed on to help with the massive relief and recovery effort underway across the southeast.

Claim numbers at insurer Suncorp have already topped 13,000 with the figure expected to continue to rise. 

“That’s an extraordinary number of claims in a very short period of time,” Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston said. 

“The key thing for us will be to get assessors on the ground and we’re doing that in the next 24 hours starting in Gympie. 

“And then we’ll work our way down the coast.”

But Mr Johnston said it was already clear the state would be dealing with “large losses” and urged the recovery to “build it back better”. 

“The inevitability here is that we are going to be repairing homes that have been repaired three or four times.

“And so what this really brings to bear is the need to build it back better. 

“We need to take account of the water, where that water is flowed, and work with our customers and work with the industry more broadly to build homes that are more resilient.”

The focus is now on getting people back to their homes and business while repairing vital infrastructure, Queensland Disaster Reconstruction Authority CEO Brendan Moon says.

“This will be a big task for Queenslanders, but we have done this before. The community, local government and state government and the Commonwealth Government will come together to support the recovery of our communities just as we’ve been done before.”

Brisbane City Council has launched a citywide clean-up while counting the cost but warns it will take time. 

“It is still too early to determine the damage figure – there’s a lot of assets that we haven’t been able to get onto yet,” Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner said. 

“Ferry terminals, river walks – there’re a lot of parks that have had significant damage so this will take some time to get the figures together.”

Cr Schrinner said the cost is not expected to exceed 2011 figures. 

“I don’t expect that it will be at that level. I think it will be less than 2011 but we still don’t have a figure at this point. This will be something that takes time.”

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