Before Lisa Madden bought her home in the New South Wales town of Forbes in 2020, her bank told her they would not issue a mortgage unless her property had flood insurance.
She took out a policy with Budget Direct and bought a $255,000 single-storey fibro cottage on a quarter-acre block on Ferry Street.
"I had full house and contents insurance and flood insurance," she said.
"It was stipulated with the bank it had to be flood insurance as well."
But on May 2, armed with forecasts for another wet year, Budget Direct had second thoughts.
"They sent a letter and said they will no longer renew my insurance because of the flood," she said.
Ms Madden scrambled to find another insurer — but midway through one of the wettest years on record, no-one would cover her for flooding.
In October, the Lachlan River burst its banks and floodwaters spread slowly towards her now-uninsured home.
"It was very scary. I didn't know what to do. There was nothing I could do really."
In November, the water came into her house, causing an estimated $50,000 in damage and rendering the house unlivable.
"Most of my furniture was ruined — the fridge, freezer, washing machine, dishwasher, beds, skirting boards, doors … [I] had to take all the interior doors off. I can't close the front door."
Now, she's stuck with a $150,000 mortgage on an unlivable, unsellable home.
Ms Madden embodies the insurance crisis facing the hundreds of thousands of Australians who live in homes vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods and cyclones.
Increasingly, insurance cover is either unaffordable or refused outright.
Andrew Hall from the Insurance Council of Australia estimates the damage bill from this year's NSW Central West floods at about half a billion dollars.
"For such a large event, we've only so far got $150 million of insurance claims in and I expect that's largely driven by the fact people were under or not insured," he said.
The NSW SES says 2,649 buildings were damaged in the floods.
In a statement, Budget Direct's parent company Auto and General said the decision to decline cover to Ms Madden was based on "updated flood mapping data from several sources. These updates can lead to a small percentage of addresses changing from acceptable to no longer being acceptable".
Lisa Madden isn't happy.
"I think if you seek insurance for flood and they allow you to have flood insurance, but then when a flood is on its way they pull out, I don't think that's right," she said.
Communities left vulnerable
Forbes' mayor Phyllis Miller says the insurance industry needs a shake-up.
"You can't take people's money for insurance policies and at the death knock say, 'Well, no, we're not going to cover that," she told 7.30.
Ms Miller said many Forbes homes were too vulnerable to flooding.
"It's something that, as a council, we're living with day in and day out. We most probably need buybacks," she said.
Mr Hall says high premiums and cancelled insurance cover reflect the unacceptable level of risk facing many Australian communities.
"If you can't get insurance, you won't get a mortgage," he said.
"If you have a mortgage and lose your insurance you're probably in breach of your mortgage. It is so interconnected and can have such a devastating impact on people's lives."
'We don't know what to do'
In the small town of Eugowra, where a flash flood inundated scores of homes, Hugh and Lyn Ellis know their insurance probably won't cover the damage to their home.
The November flood destroyed their newly renovated home and swept away most of their possessions, as well as their cattle dog. The Ellises watched Ben wash away and were winched to safety from their rooftop, after bashing an escape hole through their tin roof.
They were insured for storms, not floods, because flood insurance was prohibitively expensive for the town's residents.
"It depends on a hydrologist telling us whether it was a storm or a flood," Mr Ellis said.
"If it was a storm, we're probably insured. If it was a flood, no."
Ms Ellis said the event was so extreme, normal definitions of "flood" should not apply.
"This was devastation beyond belief," she said.
"Most people in Eugowra paid insurance all their lives, big dollars, they've taken precautions and been prepared to wear the flood thing, but this was not just flood."
The Ellises have spent the past month cleaning up their flood-ravaged home. They can't afford to repeat the $350,000 renovation that was completed just days before the disaster.
"We just wondered whether we could get a little corner of the house habitable and live there, but long term we're in a quandary. We don't know what to do," Mr Ellis said.
In one of the few bright notes, their dog Ben was rescued downstream two days after the storm.
Ben had no collar but his rescuer posted his photo online — and the dog was recognised by a friend of the Ellises living in South Africa who had been scouring the internet trying to find the pet.
"We thought he was gone," Ms Ellis said. "We're just very glad to have him back."
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