Whilst residents and the ‘mud army’ have mobilised in the clean-up across Queensland, in other communities, volunteers and residents are waiting for flood waters to recede. In Rockhampton, the community can breathe a little easier after flood levels reached a peak of 8.75 metres yesterday.
The category four system Cyclone Debbie made landfall over a week ago near Airlie beach bringing winds of up to 253 kilometres per hour, devastating coastal communities, destroying homes, businesses, roads and power lines. The worst affected areas were Airlie Beach, Dingo Beach, and Cannonvale. On Tuesday, over 20,000 homes were still without power.
The extreme weather brought by the cyclone saw over 60 Queensland locations receiving the highest levels of rainfall ever recorded, causing flooding that continues to impact Rockhampton, Logan and Beaudesert.
A full recovery is expected to take around two years according to Juliette Wright, Chief Executive of GIVIT, an organisation which enables charities to see and order goods which have been offered up for donation and request any items they need for their clients.
"We were still doing Cyclone Yasi recovery 18 months on from landfall," she said.
Volunteering Queensland (VQ), the organisation coordinating volunteering efforts, said 160 volunteers (‘mud army’) had been sent to locally affected areas. A total of 65,000 volunteers are currently available across the state but only Logan City Council had requested assistance so far.
"We definitely invite any councils, any disaster agencies or any not-for-profits across the state to get in contact with us if they do find they need extra volunteer support in terms of general clean-up activities," VQ communications manager Vanessa Codling said.
"We welcome them to get in touch with Volunteering Queensland and we'd be happy to look up our local volunteers that we have registered with us and organise a local response."
Cyclone Debbie State and Federal Government news and announcements:
- Minister for Justice Michael Keenan and Queensland Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services Mark Ryan announced additional disaster assistance for 27 Queensland local government areas through the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA). For more information go to the Australian Government’s Disaster Assist website.
- All volunteers registered with the Queensland Government will be covered by WorkCover if they’re injured while assisting clean-up efforts following Cyclone Debbie. Go here for more information.
- Agriculture Minister Bill Byrne has welcomed activation of Category B assistance for primary producers in a further seven local government areas. Go here for more information.
- Councils have an extra three weeks to lodge applications for the Palaszczuk Government’s $375 million Building our Regions program to give them time to recover from Tropical Cyclone Debbie.
- $12 million has been prioritised for disaster affected sports clubs. Go here for more information.
- Queenslanders have another two weeks to provide their thoughts on the proposal to broaden and enhance existing reef protection regulations to give them time to recover from Tropical Cyclone Debbie.
- Immediate financial assistance and support services are now available to eligible Rockhampton residents who have been impacted by flooding in the aftermath of TC Debbie. Go here or contact the Community Recovery Hotline on 1800 173 349 for further information.