North West Cape in WA has suffered some of the worst damage from Tropical Cyclone Narelle, the biggest storm to hit the state since Seroja in April 2021.

Exmouth, gateway to the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Marine Park, and other towns in the region are still assessing the damage.

Recovery operations remain difficult as access is restricted, with many flood alerts in force.

“We’ve got massive destruction and there’s going to start being a lot of insurance claims start coming through,” Shire of Exmouth president Matthew Niikkula told insuranceNEWS.com.au this afternoon.

“We have no way in and out at the moment.”

Mr Niikkula says he has “been reached out to by the Insurance Council of Australia [to] say everything will be looked after and everyone will be supported ... but that’s still a long way down the track in our area.

“We’ll be having meetings this afternoon … probably after those we will know a bit more.”

He says the state’s emergency services agency has “inspected 212 houses and 185 of them had damage, so these are the sort of ratios that you are looking at”.

IAG says it has received 132 claims, largely relating to wind damage, fencing impacts and water ingress.

“Tropical Cyclone Narelle has caused widespread damage and disruption to communities across WA, impacting wildlife, homes, businesses and critical infrastructure,” EGM of claims Luke Gallagher told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“While Exmouth remains inaccessible due to flooded roads and the airport closure, we’ve repositioned our response vehicles and assessing teams to Perth so they’re ready to move in as soon as it’s safe to provide face‑to‑face support.

“We’re also proactively contacting brokers and have established a dedicated support team for customers affected by crop losses and farm damage to ensure they receive specialised assistance.”

Frans du Plessis, director of Perth broker Grace Insurance, says a client in Exmouth “sustained roof damage that needed urgent make-safe work and clean-up to prevent further loss.

“We connected the affected client with one of our insured trade businesses in the local area [that was] operational and able to respond quickly.”

A spokesperson for Woodside Energy says production “continues at Macedon and Pluto [plants] and Woodside is continuing to supply domestic gas to our WA customers from available capacity.  

“With the Port of Dampier now reopened, ship loading at Pluto LNG is recommencing, demonstrating the reliability of WA LNG supply to customers amid current global supply constraints.

“Following the production interruption at our Karratha gas plant due to the cyclone, we are remobilising our offshore workforce.”

Federal Financial Services Minster Daniel Mulino says he is “very keen to engage with insurers to make sure they follow through on their obligations to communities as they’re affected”.