Sorry to hear of your troubles and all the pending inconvenience it will likely lead to pulse. As you mentioned, comparatively you seem to have gotten off lightly overall, which is a good thing.
With the news coverage I've seen of the flooding/ fires, etc. I'm sure overall these disasters are gonna wreak some havoc with the insurance companies and overall economy.
Is the tax they're proposing to be an ongoing disaster funding deal, or have some finite term? Our Texas legislature proposed a "temporary tax" some years ago to cover a budget shortfall and surprise, surprise, the extensions have been endless since its initial expiration and .... it's even gone up
Luckily for us here in Dallas the only natural disasters we're likely to encounter are tornadoes. While these can be horrendous and if a facility is directly hit by one it's pretty much destroyed, with a high likelihood anyone there could well be hurt, if not killed, they're very localized in their damage. Luckily this also means the likelihood of being effected by one is minimal overall.
When I was very young we had a lot of flooding here at times but with the erection of levies and other flood control measures they've enacted that's rarely an issue anymore and again, highly localized when it occurs.
All my best to you cats down under and hopefully ya'll have seen the worst of it, at least for this year!