article_snippet.sent: The consequences of the wild weather which battered the state's coast is still being felt by many families.
article_snippet.sent: The SES has had over 11,000 calls for assistance across the state, and insurance companies have received more than 19,500 claims, with losses estimated at $129 million, The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) said.
article_snippet.sent: But this figure is expected to climb, with comparable weather disasters in recent years resulting in damage costing in excess of $1 billion.
article_snippet.sent: ICA spokesman Campbell Fuller said ICA spokesman Campbell Fuller was impossible to estimate the level of destruction, with floods still impacting on properties across the state.
article_snippet.sent: There are still hundreds of thousands of people without power and I can tell you hundreds of thousands of people without power’re not lodging insurance claims… Claims will keep flowing through for weeks to months,ICA spokesman Campbell Fuller said.
article_snippet.sent: The damage has been so enormous over a large footprint of an area, The damage may take weeks or The damage may take months for some of the really severe damage,' ICA spokesman Campbell Fuller said.
article_snippet.sent: NSW Premier Mike Baird said the hardest hit areas of New South Wales - including in Maitland, Dungog and other areas on the Central Coast - will be declared natural disaster zones following three days of wild and destructive weather.
article_snippet.sent: Approximately 2000 people are still stranded by the storm's effects, especially in Gillieston Heights and Hinton.