Insurance claims following Friday's tornado in Cambridge could be about $10 million.
More than 100 insurance claims have been made following the twister in the Waikato town on Friday morning, which damaged buildings, brought down power lines and uprooted trees.
Assessors were considering whether five particularly badly affected
residences should be restored or demolished.
Insurance Council chief executive Chris Ryan said just over 100 claims had been made by late Friday, and he expected more would have been made in the meantime.
"The damage from these types of events tend to be in pretty specific areas," Mr Ryan said.
"They are all pretty similar, relating to roofing and structural damage."
Mr Ryan said it was difficult to be sure of the cost, other than to say that "within reason, it won't be a huge cost for the industry".
"It won't be anything like the massive cost of the Northland floods last year, which was about $60 million-$70 million."
When asked if $10 million could be an accurate estimate, Mr Ryan said "it's very hard to know but that's probably not a bad figure".
Mr Ryan said the cost could spiral upwards if it hit any valuable land but he wasn't aware if it had.
The tornado hit the Leamington area in the southeast of Cambridge. It is close to a couple of valuable thoroughbred horse studs, which appeared to escape the worst of the damage.
"We lost a couple of trees and had a garage lifted and got carted about 200-300m before it got smashed, but that was the extent of it," The Oaks Stud general manager Rick Williams said.
"As far as I know we were the only horse farm affected."
The tornado missed the town's central business district but badly damaged the Oakdale Rest Home and a service station. There were no reported injuries.
- NZPA
