Cyclone Seroja: Insurance claims soar in Mid West as cost of ‘catastrophe’ still being counted

The number of insurance claims in the wake of cyclone Seroja has more than doubled in the past two weeks, with authorities still calculating the huge damage bill from the disaster. A total of 4,614 insurance claims have been submitted since the one-in-50-year event lashed the Mid West, Gascoyne and Wheatbelt regions on the night of April 11, leaving countless homeless. The staggering number is more than double the 2,150 claims lodged five days after the category three cyclone made landfall along State’s north west coast, and comes after the Insurance Council of Australia declared cyclone Seroja an “insurance catastrophe”. It is also more than four times the amount of claims made after the devastating Wooroloo bushfires, which destroyed 86 homes and caused more than $88 million in damage. The ICA said it doesn’t yet have an estimated loss figure for Seroja, with insurance assessors continuing to visit the ravaged community centres across the 35,000km impact area. However, the Insurance Information Institute has previously suggested that an incident only be labelled a “catastrophe” in the event that potential claims exceed $25 million. More than 1,119 structures across 13 local government areas were damaged by Seroja, including at least 882 homes. Of those, at least 32 were completely destroyed, while more than 211 were severely damaged. A further 187 were moderately damaged, with the remaining 448 slightly damaged. In hard-hit Kalbarri, where Seroja damaged about 75 per cent of the town’s 896 homes and businesses, more than 385 residential structures were damaged — including 18 that were completely destroyed. A further 78 homes were severely damaged and 103 moderately damaged, with only 186 escaping with only slight damage. A total of 102 homes were left uninhabitable in the tiny tourist town. An hour south east in Northampton, more than 197 homes were damaged. While no homes were completely destroyed, 46 were severely damaged, with the remainder either moderately damaged (36) or slightly damaged (115). A total of 42 homes were left uninhabitable in the small country town. Cyclone Seroja is the third event that has been declared a catastrophe by insurers this year, after the Wooroloo bushfires in the Perth Hills and the record-breaking rains and devastating floods in New South Wales. The latter saw more than 42,282 insurance claims lodged and resulted in a damage bill of $624 million.