The Weekend Australian Financial Review (Feb 5-6, p. 13) contains the following tabulation of the costs of Cyclone Yasi:

• Damage to sugar crop:                  $500m
• Damage to banana crop:               $350m
• Forgone mining production:        $300m
• Other fruit and vegetable crops: $50m
• Projected insurance claims:         $225m
• Damage to leisure boats:              $1oom

This adds up to just over $1.5 billion, but there may be some double counting as the damage to leisure boats could partly be covered by insurance. Hence, it’s reasonable to conclude damages are around $1.4-1.5 billion.

This doesn’t include the cost to Government from disaster relief payments (possibly in the order of $100 million, if 100,000 people claim the $1,000 payment) or the costs of mobilising the army and emergency services and council workers to aid in the clean up. Hence, it’s possible Yasi could end up costing in the range of $1.5 billion to $2 billion.