Estimated cost of Cyclone Gabrielle for Hawke’s Bay over $5 billion so far

The estimated price tag of Cyclone Gabrielle for Hawke’s Bay alone has skyrocketed to over $5 billion so far.

Data compiled by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council in its Regional Water Assessment gave a breakdown of the costs to the primary sector, local government infrastructure, central government, funding packages, insurance claims and cancelled events as of May 2023.

The estimated price tag of Cyclone Gabrielle for Hawke’s Bay alone is over $5 billion so far. Photo / Warren Buckland

The report estimates the cost to the primary sector, including agriculture/farming, horticulture and viticulture, as $1,712,500,000.

Local government infrastructure costs for Hastings District Council, Napier City Council, Central Hawke’s Bay District Council, Wairoa District Council and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council were estimated to be $1,485,160,000.

Central government costs and funding packages so far were estimated to be $827,948,986, while disaster relief payments made from the Mayoral Relief Fund, HB Disaster Relief Fund, HB Foundation and Red Cross were $4,650,846 so far, and cancelled events were $30,000,000.

Finally, the report cites $481,227,673 in insurance claims up to March 23.

However, with the most recent Insurance Council of New Zealand data to June 23 showing $979,800,000 of insurance claims made in Hawke’s Bay, the total estimated cost of Cyclone Gabrielle to Hawke’s Bay alone comes out at $5,040,059,832 so far.

According to appendices with the report, the data has been drawn from media and industry reports, local government locality plans, payments made from relief funds and Government packages for flood relief.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson predicted in February the cyclone would bring with it a “multi-billion-dollar price tag”, saying it would be comparable to regional events like the Canterbury earthquakes.

The total cost of the Christchurch earthquake rebuild was estimated by Treasury in its Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2014 to be $40 billion in 2011 money (over $51 billion today, according to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand inflation calculator).

James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environmental, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz.