Eye-watering cost of cyclone clean-up

Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt said it was “too early” to know the full scale of the damage caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper as communities remain trapped in floodwater in the wake of the disaster.

An enormous clean-up is under way in Far North Queensland after the category 2 storm dumped nearly 1000mm of rain, leaving tens of thousands without power and hundreds of people trapped on their roofs.

Those heading into recovery mode are being encouraged to access federal and state emergency funding to assist them in the clean-up.

Mr Watt said there was joint Commonwealth and state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements available to those in need.

“This is on top of the assistance that’s already been announced,” Mr Watt said.

Queensland’s new Disaster Recovery Minister Nikki Boyd said people should contact the Queensland recovery hotline to access financial assistance from the Disaster Ready Fund.

Those eligible will be able to access $1000 for an adult and $400 for a child from 2pm on Wednesday.

“That’s disaster assistance loans that will help our small businesses and our producers,” Ms Boyd said.

“It will also help our not-for-profits. We’ve got additional essential working capital loans that are there for our producers, our small businesses and our not-for-profits as well.

“That’s in addition to the freight subsidies that folks are able to access as well, which is for our primary producers and will be able to assist with the movement of essential stock and also the rebuild that they need as well.”

In addition, Deputy Commissioner Mike Wassing has been appointed as the Deputy State Recovery Coordinator.

“Queenslanders in the Far North have done a great job bearing with the impact of ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper,” Mr Miles said.

“Now the clean up begins and the recovery is in full force.

“Deputy Commissioner Wassing will join the QRA to assist CEO Major General (Rtd) Jake Elwood in providing the best possible support to the impacted communities.

“With extensive impacts to primary producers, small businesses, tourism and massive damage to infrastructure, recovery is going to be a big task.

Deputy Commissioner Wassing will assist in coordinating disaster recovery operations, provide strategic advice to government agencies, give regular updates about recovery operations, and oversee recovery operations.

Mr Watt said the clean-up bill was expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

“It’s going to be a very expensive repair bill,” he said.

“It’s going to be big dollars in repairing some of those roads and bridges in this region.”

Mr Watt said the coming days and weeks would be challenging for the flood-impacted communities but assistance was available.

“We face a really massive clean-up exercise here in Far North Queensland,” he said.

“The water, the mud, the smell. It’s going to take a lot of work from a lot of people and I’ve already seen a lot of volunteers out there helping along.

“What we’ve been able to do is engage a number of major contractors to assist with that work.

“That is the process that we’ve often adopted in other parts of the country when we’ve seen massive disasters, and they will have people ready to go quite quickly to assist the councils with those clean-up efforts.

“So we’ve just talked that through with councils this morning, encouraging them to take up that offer.”

On Monday, military personnel evacuated 25 residents in the remote town of Wujal Wujal who were then taken to nearby Cooktown to a special evacuation centre. About half of the community remain in the flood-devastated town after an earlier evacuation effort was cancelled due to strong winds and cloud cover.

“What I’m told is many people did not want to leave, but there will be one more evacuation flight. Yesterday was really getting the vulnerable and the elderly out, and that’s been achieved, but we hope to evacuate more people through the course of the day,” Mr Watt said on Wednesday.

Mr Watt said about 100 people had been evacuated in Far North Queensland so far and there was a long way to go for the recovery effort.

“It’s a little too early to know the full scale of the damage, but we do know that there’s widespread damage to state and local roads across the region. Some of the roads will take some time to repair – you will have seen some of the damage is enormous – but we obviously want to get the freight routes opened up as we can and work is already beginning on that,” he said.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles said no lives had been lost at this stage and recovery could take months.

“We know from all of the other disasters that we’ve managed that the effects of this could run into months, if not years,” he said.

Mr Miles said he understood citizens still stranded in flooded communities were frustrated and pressed that lots of resources had been deployed to get them out as soon as possible.

“There’s an enormous effort here,” he said.

“I also want to assure them that even once the crisis stage of the disaster is over, we’ll still be there.”

Anthony Albanese announced that he would tour the region with Mr Miles later this week after he flew to Brisbane on Monday to assist with flood co-ordination efforts.

The Prime Minister announced a one-off payment of $1000 per eligible adult and $400 per eligible child who had suffered a significant loss as a result of the floods. People who live and work in the Cairns, Cassowary Coast, Mareeba, Tablelands and Wujal Wujal council areas can access this payment from 2pm on Wednesday.