Data from nine insurance providers suggests the storm, which raged October 7-8, caused 1,017 home insurance claims totaling €1.7 million, 277 corporate and apartment association insurance claims worth €1.2 million and 217 vehicle casco insurance claims worth €600,000, the Estonian Motor Insurance Bureau (LKF) said.

The average home insurance claim was €1,715, while major claims stretched into tens of thousands of euros. The average claim was €5,326 for corporate and €2,728 for vehicle claims.

LKF spokesperson Ülli Reimets said that around 25 percent of storm damage cases had to do with broken roofs, while in every fifth case broken branches or items that caught flight damaged someone else's property.

2005 storm damages still the worst

Information from insurance providers reveals that December storms have been the most damaging over the last 15 years. Storms are also more likely in August and October. The October 7-8 storm was the most serious in 2023.

Reimets said that storms and flooding vary from one year to the next, with the number of claims also depending on population and property density in worst-hit areas.

The greatest ever insurance damages due to natural causes were tallied up in 2005. The storm and flooding in the city of Pärnu caused over €10 million worth of damage. Today, such a storm would result in many times that sum in insurance claims alone as there is more insured property in the area and it is also worth more, Reimets pointed out.

She said that storms the damage caused by which matched this year's October storm occurred in August 2010, December 2011, October 2013, the two December storms of 2013, December 2015, July 2016 and October 2019.

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