The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) and insurers will visit communities impacted by the Tropical Cyclone Seroja next week to help policyholders who need claims assistance.
Tropical Cyclone Seroja landed on the south of Kalbarri Town on April 11, 2021. It devastated around 800 kilometres of the Mid-West region coastline, with a strong gust of wind extending from the coastline inland and continued a south-south-easterly track into the morning of April 12.
With many policyholders still struggling with their claims process, claims managers and assessors will travel to the Tropical Cyclone Seroja-affected towns to provide one-on-one consultations while following each town's COVID-19-safe protocols. The claims assistance will be held from March 22 to 23 in the following areas:
Registration is essential. Therefore, policyholders who need claims assistance must book an appointment with an insurer or the ICA at insurancecouncil.com.au/CycloneSeroja.
PERILS, an independent Zurich-based organisation that provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, said Tropical Cyclone Seroja is the largest event for Western Australia (WA) since the Perth hailstorms in 2010, and the largest cyclone event since Cyclone Joan in 1975, Alby in 1978, and Hazel in 1979.
As of February 22, 2022, the ICA said insurers had received 9,273 claims related to damage from Tropical Cyclone Seroja, with 99.44% accepted and 83.75% of 6,394 personal claims closed. The current estimated loss value is $346.7 million.
In a previous statement, Darryl Pidcock, head of PERILS Asia-Pacific, said Seroja serves as a warning that devastating tropical cyclones can also occur in the northwest of WA.
