It comes as storm-ravaged southern dairy farmers are starting to see the "light at the end of the tunnel" after last week’s burst of wild weather also cut power to their operations.
An Insurance Council New Zealand spokesman said it was still too early to release details of the number of claims.
However, FMG, one of the country’s largest rural insurers, said it had received more than 900 weather-related claims nationwide already — more than half of which were from the Southland and Otago regions.
FMG claims strategic operations head Jacqui McIntosh said at this stage the claims nationwide equated to about $10 million, but it was still early days and the numbers were expected to rise while states of emergency were still in place and major utilities were still out in some areas.
Claims included damaged roofs, farm buildings, fencing and irrigators.
Damage to the network last Thursday left many dairy farmers without power to run their cowsheds, which meant they were unable to milk their cows.
Some of them were unable to be milked for several days.
But Federated Farmers Southland vice-president Kass Rauber said every dairy farm in Southland now had access to a generator to power their sheds.
"On Saturday, we were coming across a couple of farms that hadn’t.
"But by midnight Saturday night, all cows were being milked."
Every farm was now able to milk their cows at least once a day.
"There would be a very, very small number of farms that don’t have one generator per cowshed.
"There’s a couple of farmers out there that have two cowsheds on their dairy farms, and some of those guys have said they are more than happy to just use one generator between their two sheds, and share the second generator with neighbours."
Mr Rauber paid tribute to all the tradies, electricians and linesmen who had been out hooking up generators and fixing power lines since the storm.
Southland District Mayor Rob Scott said yesterday the district had turned the corner but more work needed to done.
He felt proud being a Southlander in the past few days.
"It is that old Southland spirit being shown.
"Everyone working together, competitors working with each other to get the job done.
"People are just getting on with it."
The council was not looking at costs yet as it was busy sorting people out.
He had seen some unbelievable sights and damage was widespread.
Power had been restored to the Te Anau township.
Invercargill City Council parks and recreation manager Caroline Rain said all parks and reserves remained shut in the city except Surrey Park.
She urged the public to stay out of the areas.
"Please stop entering our parks.
"We are extremely grateful that nobody in our community has been hurt, or worse, at this point.
"We are aware people have continued to access our public spaces, despite repeated warnings not to.
"It was absolutely critical people allow us to continue assessing the damage, from a technical perspective, so that we can reopen safely."
Strong winds on Sunday night led to more trees falling and others vulnerable.
Ground conditions were wet, leading to unstable trees.
The sheer number of trees downed meant logs and trunks would be made available to the community as firewood.
Welfare checks had been carried out at Queens Park and all animals, including tuatara, were safe.
The Southland Cricket Association was in a holding pattern with its main ground at the park closed.
