Johannesburg - Public authorities and insurance companies are still counting the costs of March's storm and freak waves that ravaged the KwaZulu-Natal coastline.
Estimates are growing daily, and it's clear the final number will be big.
For instance, damage to public property in Durban alone is estimated at around R85m, but officials say this is an early assessment and the figure could rise.
Ballito on the KZN north coast was one of the hardest hit areas by what have been called mini-tidal waves, causing extensive damage to private residential property on the beachfront.
Louis Luyt, who has a beachfront development - Ballito Manor - says the local estimate of damage to private property and infrastructure is close to R2bn.
"My property is exposed to the sea but luckily the waves did not cause too much damage, a wall was washed away and a few buildings damaged.
"But there's a life guard building on the beach, valued at about R3m, that we built and donated to the council. It's in danger of collapsing, and I don't think the council has the money to replace it," he said.
'More claims coming'
Henry Ehlers, operations general manager at SA Eagle, said the company had so far received 56 claims related to the storm for about R2.5m. "But it's very early to try and judge the full extent of the damage. I think more claims will be coming in."
Insured parties typically have 30 days to lodge a claim, and at places like Ballito and Margate on the south coast many of the residential properties are either holiday homes or buy-to-let investments.
This will slow the claims process, as the owners have to come down to the coast or arrange for assessors to evaluate the extent of damage to properties.
"I think this will certainly be registered as what we can call a catastrophe," says Howard Cohen of Mutual & Federal. "We've received about 1 200 claims so far, but there are going to be more. The tail on this type of event is long."
Tidal wave and hurricane
In insurance terms the damage technically falls under what can be called two events - a tidal wave and a hurricane. However, Hollard says the losses should be covered, provided that the sums insured are adequate.
Zuriel Naiker of Hollard Communications & Marketing said: "Acts of God clauses, which policyholders have been concerned about, as they were previously defined are no longer contained in policy documents.
"There are prescribed exclusions, and we advise people to consult their policy should they have any doubt. We are working hard to ensure that this process is as painless and efficient as possible to get our customers sorted."
Barry Taylor, CEO of First Link, the short-term insurance arm of the FirstRand Group, says about 102 claims have so far been notified at an estimated cost of R1.1m. These are all personal claims, he says, and the number is likely to rise as First Link is still being notified of losses.
Other costs are difficult to quantify but will be substantial. For instance the high tides, swells of up to eight metres and strong winds caused the ports at Richards Bay, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth to be closed for two days (19 and 20 March).
The ports are operational again, but SA Port Operations says average delays in Durban are 40 hours at the Maydon Wharf Terminal and 28 hours at the Container Terminal.
Depth of damage
This has resulted in a number of vessels being anchored outside Durban Harbour.
Lost hours are very expensive for shipping lines and logistics operators at the terminals, but there has been physical damage too.
Two ships collided outside Richards Bay at the height of the storm. The Greek bulk vessels, Theareston and Angela Star, were in the port's outer anchorage when the accident happened. No injuries were reported but both ships are damaged.
Damage to the beachfront along much of the East Coast has been extensive. Luyt says rehabilitation work will have to be done at Ballito to try and restore the sand dunes, ecologically sensitive features that need to be protected.
At Virginia airport north of Durban light aircraft were blown across the runway on 19 March when the full storm struck the coast.
Comparisons are already being made with Cyclone Demoina in 1984, that washed away homes and bridges and flooded large areas. Final costs of that disaster were never fully quantified, as may be the case with this month's damage.