In the early hours of Saturday morning parts of the Illawarra and South Coast experienced a devastating weather event - leaving residents without homes, cars totalled, businesses ruined and everyone facing major cleanup operations to salvage what wasn't destroyed.

Having had the opportunity to move across the community and see the devastation brought upon everything in sight, it is pretty stark.

In some streets, nothing was spared. It's house after house after house, some badly damaged after experiencing waist deep water or flooding from sewerage.

It's communities like Coalcliff, Thirroul, Bulli, Woonona, Russell Vale, Corrimal, Mount Keira, Figtree, Berkeley and Warrawong which have been hit the hardest, where emergency services personnel and SES volunteers worked around the clock, battling a torrent of rain and floodwaters to keep us all safe.

It brought back terrible memories of the 1998 floods which caused widespread destruction across the community.

The deadly floods two and a half decades ago damaged more than a thousand properties, dumped record breaking amounts of water and left a monumental cleanup operation, and there is no doubt just mentioning it triggers very disturbing memories for our community, myself included.

It's critical we get everyone back on their feet as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, in 1998, this wasn't the experience with insurers dragging their feet and many people left without support for months.

Now I'm heartened as I've moved around the community over the past few days that number of people told me insurers have already reached out asking for documentation.

While this is encouraging, my office has heard stories about locals having difficulty submitting claims. This can't be happening, especially not at the same time while many still face weeks of repairs to their homes and neighbourhoods.

I am confident the insurance industry has learned from the mistakes of the past. I'm urging insurers right across the board, not to be penny pinching. People have paid their premiums for a reason. This is the time that people expect their goods to be reimbursed and their assets to be repaired or replaced.

It's absolutely critical these claims are processed as quickly as possible to help people get back on the feet as they face the challenges ahead.

In the past few days, I've seen the very best of our community with people opening their homes to their neighbours, helping members of their community in need or just sharing a drink over the fence after a day of cleaning up.

I know we will get back on our feet as quickly as possible. But it's vital we're not hampered by red tape and over zealous insurers.

Ryan Park MP, Minister for Health, Minister for Regional Health and Minister for the Illawarra and the South Coast