Tuesday, 27 May 2025
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has today upgraded its classification of the Mid North Coast and Hunter flooding event that has impacted communities since 17 May to an Insurance Catastrophe.
The decision to upgrade from a Significant Event to a Catastrophe was informed by feedback on the ground about the local severity of this event and the ongoing challenges that are faced in the recovery efforts.
It is also clear there are ongoing effects of flooding in these regions over the past several years that requires more sustainable solutions for impacted river catchments.
The ICA’s Catastrophe declaration serves to escalate and prioritise the insurance industry’s response for affected policyholders.
Under the Catastrophe declaration:
- Claims from affected policyholders are given priority by insurers
- Claims are triaged to direct urgent assistance to the worst-impacted property owners
- ICA representatives are mobilised to work with local agencies and services and affected policyholders
- Insurers mobilise disaster response specialists to assist affected customers with claims and assessments
- An industry taskforce is established to identify and address issues arising from this catastrophe.
- The ICA’s disaster hotline is activated 1800 734 621 offering assistance to policyholders if they have general enquiries about the claims process.
Insurers have received 4,900 claims from this event so far.
