Sabra Lane: Six months after a huge hailstorm, the residents of Harden in New South Wales are still waiting for their homes and businesses to be repaired. The storm lasted less than an hour but caused nearly $6 million in damage and locals say insurance companies are to blame for the delays. Rachel Holdsworth reports.
Local: Oh no, what's happening?
Rachel Holdsworth: The chaotic early hours of a Monday morning in February when a freak hailstorm ripped through the small town of Harden in south east New South Wales.
Local: Oh my god, I'm scared.
Rachel Holdsworth: Workouts at the local gym were cut short as 40mm of hail and 70mm of rain dropped in the space of an hour. Owner Ros Stewart watched her business fall apart before her eyes.
Ros Stewart: We just heard a noise that was unbelievable with hail and rain and before we knew it we were trying to dodge roof tiles that were falling down, trying to get the people that were in here out.
Rachel Holdsworth: To stay open during the repair works, Ros Stewart has moved the gym down the road to a temporary site. But it's cut the number of daily visitors from 50 to just 10.
Ros Stewart: We've got about 10 pieces of equipment down there because its floors are wooden and it can't take the weight of the equipment.
Rachel Holdsworth: She spent months negotiating with her insurance provider AIG Insurance. Her payout came through earlier this month but it only covered about a third of her estimated losses.
Ros Stewart: This was not just a normal storm, this was a freak natural disaster that no building could withstand. There's a whole other fight for us to have. We've been sold an insurance policy that didn't cover what we should have had.
Rachel Holdsworth: AIG declined to comment. More than 500 insurance claims have been made in Harden since the storm for a population of under 2,000. Around half of them are still outstanding. The Insurance Council of Australia and several providers visited Harden earlier this month in an effort to process more claims through in-person meetings. Liam Walter is the Director of Extreme Weather Response and Mitigation at the Insurance Council.
Liam Walter: The event that happened here, quite significant serious damage. So replacing roofs and replacing water damage, it does take a bit of time. So those that are still open at this point, it'll be complexity of the claim, the different types of materials, the different types of repairs will dictate.
Rachel Holdsworth: He says there are challenges that come from mass insurance claims outside metro areas and it's too early to say whether it will cause insurance premiums to rise in Harden.
Liam Walter: Certainly at a global level, the increase in severity of events is contributing to increasing premiums but there's other factors at play there.
Rachel Holdsworth: Hilltops Council General Manager Anthony O'Reilly says the council is waiting on its own repairs. He says it's taking a while but the town will bounce back.
Anthony O'Reilly: The community spirit has been fantastic. People have backed each other, people have helped each other. It's warming, it's great to see.
Sabra Lane: The General Manager of Hilltops Council Anthony O'Reilly ending Rachel Holdworth's report.