Insurers: At least €500 mil. in damage claims after June storms

The extreme rain-, wind- and hail storms that hit large parts of the Netherlands led to at least 500 million euros in damage claims, according to the initial figures of the Dutch association of insurers VNV. This includes damage to homes, cars and agricultural companies, ANP reports. This amount may still increase - due to the massive scale of the damage, some insurers are still working on claims. The total amount of damage done is also higher, as not everyone is insured against these types of weather damage. Damage to cars, caravans and houses amounted to 325 million euros, according to VNV. 40 percent of those cases involved damage to homes. The insured property damage amounted to 175 million euros, of which the majority comes from the agricultural sector. "The hailstorm on June 23, with hailstones as big as tennis balls, should be a wake-up call. The climate is changing, we are going to experience this more often", Leo de Boer, director of damage at VNV, said according to the news wire. "In 2015 we also saw significant weather damage, with a summer storm late July and extreme rainfall and hail end of August."