More than 11,000 damage claims were made between 20 and 23 March with the Insurance Council of Australia declaring large swathes of the state an "insurance catastrophe".[33] The worst affected regions were from the mid-north coast towns of Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Laurieton and Taree, and west Sydney in localities around Penrith and the Hawkesbury-Nepean valley.[34]