Insurance companies face flood of claims

INSURANCE firms are bracing themselves for a barrage of flood damage claims running to tens of millions of euro.

However, industry sources last night could not say if the claims will be worse than the biggest weather-related hit on the sector - the €84m in claims arising from the storms of December 1997.

The Cork Business Association (CBA), whose members in the city centre were among the worst hit, expect claims to be “tens of millions of euro.” However, the full extent of the damages will only be discovered in the coming days.