Central-west NSW residents left homeless by November’s devastation are still waiting for claims, with many uninsured against floods
icki and John Crow don’t describe what happened to Eugowra as a flood. “It was a 5ft wall of water, being pushed by a freight train, going at 100 miles an hour,” Vicki says. “It picked up houses and just moved them.”
This week, dozens of residents attended two days of ICA-led sessions with insurers in Eugowra and Forbes. Some have been told the claims process will take weeks, others months. In the meantime, their homes remain uninhabitable. They said the frequency of severe weather events and ongoing disruptions of Covid had led to an increase in insurance costs for its customers.
The ICA chief executive, Andrew Hall, says the floods have been “particularly devastating” for residents in Eugowra and Forbes, a region already grappling with affordability and availability concerns.“We must not ignore what this data is telling us to do – invest in community-level mitigation, home retrofits, home buybacks in the most extreme cases and better early warning systems,” Hall says.
The service is grappling with a major backlog this year due to a 400% increase in its statewide Disaster Response Legal Service compared with 2021. Hugh and Lyn Ellis had just completed a seven-month renovation of their home when the water hit their Eugowra property. A spokesperson for IAG – which includes NRMA and CGU – said it had received 1,094 claims due to the floods in central-west NSW and had completed “the majority” of property assessments received.
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