Caught up in a storm

The financial toll of the storm was huge - authorities in the Opolskie voivodship preliminarily assessed the damages at around zł.50 million. The village of Balcerzowice had 27 houses that were seriously damaged, of which 12 are to be demolished. The cost of the losses reached zł.11 million.

The government has set aside zł.25 million for reconstruction. Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised to personally oversee the payment procedure. Most of the money - almost zł.11 million - will go to the Opolskie voivodship, which was hit the hardest. Over zł.10 million will be used to help the people of Silesia and the rest will go to the Łódzkie voivodship.

According to TVN24, more and more people are insuring their property against natural disasters. The number of policies has risen from 2.2 million in 2000 to six million in 2007. But experts underscore that this is not enough, and that the majority of the uninsured are farmers, despite the fact that they are legally required to be insured.

Though disaster insurance is relatively cheap in Poland, one-fifth of the farming industry in the country remains uninsured. However, due to forecasts that storms like the recent one will happen much more often, analysts expect insurance premiums to increase in the near future. In 2007, Poles paid zł.18.5 billion toward property insurance.