Initial indications after Monday’s rainstorm are that there have been few significant claims for damages, the Malta Insurance Association said yesterday.

The initial expectations were that insurers would be inundated by claims for damages but the number of flood-related claims was, until now, relatively low.

The association said it was clear that such freak heavy rainfall as Monday’s heralded bad news for insurers.

A study commissioned by the association on the relation between climate change and Malta’s vulnerability to its effects highlighted the needs of precautionary measures against extreme freak weather behaviour “of which we are to expect more as an unavoidable consequence of global climate change”.

The association said that on Monday it feared a repeat of what had happened in autumn of four years ago.

After the merciless storm of 15 September 2003, insurers paid almost Lm4.5 million in damage claims. The devastation that followed that storm is still a vivid nightmare. “More so to the many who were uninsured, since 50 per cent of all businesses do not hold any form of insurance protection, while only one-fourth of all households are insured.”

The association believes that better flood management solutions would greatly reduce the risks of reliving that memory.

Initiatives to alleviate the now historic flooding typical to areas such as Qormi, Marsa, Birkirkara and Msida whenever it rains should be stepped-up so as to protect people, homes and businesses from further risks.