We need clear guidelines and insurers on the ground in the wake of disaster, the Parliamentary Inquiry into the insurance response to the 2022 floods has heard while in the central west.
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In the days that followed major floods in Forbes in November 2022, fire trucks moved through streets, volunteers knocking on doors and offering a hose-out - or a hand to remove sodden furniture and fittings first if needed.
It's crucial that happens quickly, Mayor Phyllis Miller OAM told the inquiry when the committee visited Molong in May.
"We've got to get those assessed quickly, because the damage starts to set in. It's a nonsense that people are still sitting there 18 months on waiting for an assessment. It's wrong," Mayor Miller said.
But Forbes Shire Council's general manager Steve Loane added it all happened so quickly some people didn't have records of what had been removed.
"The insurance companies neglected to tell a lot of the folk to document and photograph the stuff they had to take out of the houses," he told the inquiry.
"Then they'd have a fight with them afterwards to make people justify that what they actually had to dispose of was real.
"People were feeling like criminals and saying, 'They don't believe us. We had a brand-new mattress that was only two months old that had to go out in the street.'
"The backhoes and the trucks have come along and taken it all away and taken it to the tip and then these people are having their one-on-one fight with the insurance company."
And then there's the delays those waiting for repairs are facing, 18 months on.
"I don't know whether the insurance companies meant to do this, but they were not timely," Mayor Miller said.
"They would say that the person was insured and the assessments would be done. This work on the house of a person I know of personally - and I told her not to take a cash payout because she would have been left with a shell - is being done now.
"They left it really long-winded, brought in their people in their time, with no rush or trying to get it done quickly.
"That forced a lot of people to think, 'I can't do this anymore. I'm going to take the cash payment.'
"I think their timeliness and pushing out the time of doing the work forced a lot of people to take cash payments.
"I know anyone who took a cash payment is short. They are definitely short on trying to get their house back to where it should be."
Isolation - and a sense of being abandoned - is compounding the trauma and meaning people aren't getting assistance or advice, Mr Loane said.
"There are a lot of folks out there who actually just think they're on their own," Mr Loane said.
"The sense of abandonment adds to the mental health problem.
"The houses are just rotting while owners wait for months," he added.
"We came across an old fellow a couple of weeks ago who didn't remember that he was insured. He's on his own. But he also didn't know there was any help out there.
"It was only the fact that there was a chance discussion with someone who brought him some Meals on Wheels, and they looked around the house and the house has still got mud up the walls that they said, 'Why haven't you had this place attended to?' He said, 'Because I'm not physically able to do it.'
"They then informed him that there was help there to do that."
Mr Loane said his message to the inquiry, when the committee sat in Molong, was short and sweet.
"It's more about the fact that people are in the woods; they don't know what to do and they don't know where to turn to," he said.
Cabonne Mayor Kevin Beatty said his council would like to see pre-arranged processes for removal of flood-damaged items.
The flash flood events that struck Eugowra and other Cabonne communities on November 14, 2022, shocked the nation and hundreds of people rolled in to help.
"We've coined the term 'noble cause ignorance' in Cabonne," Cr Beatty said.
"Debris removal caused a great deal of extra stress and heartache, as in some instances good intending volunteers undertook cleanups prior to homeowners receiving advice from their insurance companies.
"Once the insurance companies become involved, they want proof and photographs, and it became a real headache for those poor victims.
"Council would like to see a memorandum of understanding in place across the states and territories so communities and homeowners are not working through debris removal processes during an event.
"We understand that Victoria's long-lasting MoU that was introduced following the 2009 bushfires is somewhat similar to what could take place in these sorts of disaster events."
He also called for great consideration of the mental and physical health impacts of these events on the community.
"Although hard to quantify, it appears that the stress of the flight events has resulted in a number of community members suffering from declining physical health," Cr Beatty said.
"More needs to be done to reduce stress following events. The insurance company is a big key to this."
Phone communications from Eugowra were lost in the flood and took a week to restore, so residents couldn't even contact their insurance company that way.
The Insurance Council did host meetings with insurers in Eugowra and Forbes that December so policy-holders could meet face-to-face.
