Costs for Storm Ciara could be in the region of £20m, from just one insurer – NFU Mutual. That’s almost double the cost of Storm Doris in 2017 which cost £11.5m. The business said it has already recieved over 2,800 claims from Storm Ciara.

Nine out of 10 are personal home insurance claims for significant storm damage, including fallen trees damaging property, damage to roofs and tiles, water ingress and chimneys being blown over.

There have also been 170 claims for vehicles and just over 150 claims for flood-related damage.

Storm Dennis damage still being assessed

In addition, NFU Mututal said it has already received more than 1,000 claims for Storm Dennis, the majority of which are for damage from flooding, which is typically much more expensive to repair and often averages in the region of £20,000.

While Storm Ciara caused widespread damage across the UK and a higher number of storm claims to NFU Mutual, Storm Dennis has brought concentrations of heavy rain in localised areas, causing more flood claims than storm claims.

Paul Branch, head of claims at NFU Mutual, said: “Suffering damage or being displaced from your home can be an extremely distressing time, so we move rapidly to help our communities, arranging alternative accommodation and making emergency payments.

“Even at this early stage we are also aware of more than 1,000 claims for Storm Dennis, and we expect the numbers to continue to increase as more customers submit their claims for damage.

“The number of severe flood warnings is decreasing with water starting to make its way to rivers, so thankfully we’re expecting the situation on the ground to start getting better for most regions. We remain concerned about customers in Tewkesbury, Wales and Herefordshire and the Lake District, particularly given early indications for Storm Ellen taking us through to the weekend, so we’re monitoring the situation and preparing to engage our teams again.”

NFU Mutual provides flood resilience repairs as standard in all of its home insurance policies with buildings cover, meaning cover has been provided to nearly 400,000 properties since its introduction in 2018.