Tom Tate: The north and south of the city responded differently in preparing for cyclone

New mapping has revealed the full extent of Cyclone Alfred’s fury, showing in remarkable detail which Gold Coast suburbs took the biggest hits.

Residents in the north of the Gold Coast were better prepared for Cyclone Alfred while those in the south needed the most help, new data and community feedback shows.

Mapping released by the council to The Bulletin shows the entire region was smashed by the cyclone, where the massive clean-up continues on beaches and waterways.

The monster storm caused a $1.2 billion hit to Queensland’s economy, with the greatest impact on the Coast. Mayor Tom Tate said he hoped a “large chunk” of federal budget hand-out would cover the city’s costs including the beach erosion fix.

Gold Coast City Council map showing City and emergency jobs during Cyclone Alfred, and how much the weather event impacted on the City's south.

He said he would be getting council officials to see if contracts have been signed off for offshore dredging “so reimbursement can be done in full from the Federal Government”.

Asked about the public response, he said the major complaint was the power outages being for far too long.

“But it’s a different response. If you go to the southern part of our city, that was the continual part that was terrible about the power – and Energex worked hard to put everyone back online,” he said.

“However, if you go to the north of our city, where they went through very high wind two Christmases ago, they were prepared.

“Some households knew that there is going to be power shortage, and to make sure you get a generator. A lot of them did, and some even had two generators.”

City CEO Tim Baker said the mapping showed the extent of work orders after the cyclone.

Erosion on Gold Coast beaches after Cyclone Alfred. Picture supplied by City of Gold Coast.

“The City has received 5232 work orders relating to trees, beaches, waterways and facilities – 2587 of these were related to trees. City crews have responded to and resolved 2648 of these work orders,” he said.

“Following the Christmas 2023 severe weather event review the City took immediate steps to increase staff training, review communications and gain a better understanding of the community’s preparations leading into future weather events.

“Community feedback was instrumental in our recovery plans, and this will be equally as important following Cyclone Alfred.”

Impact of Cyclone Alfred. Pictured supplied by City of Gold Coast.

Mr Baker said key lessons from the Christmas storms included more training for our Local Disaster Coordination Centre staff, where they were provided valuable evidenced-based decision making in preparation for Cyclone Alfred.

The City had spent $100m on Program Air which allowed staffers to obtain better information to understand strata resilience to severe wind events.

Other improvements included improved communication to councillors and refining Operation Clean Up to ensure a flexible solid waste plan to cover specific problems.

“Our door knocking protocols were refined and more targeted and prior planning ensured that we responded to potential impact areas and then post-event with the actual impacted areas,” Mr Baker said.

Work repairing Gold Coast beaches after Cyclone Alfred. Picture supplied by City of Gold Coast.

The City CEO congratulated staffers for an outstanding job, many of them “having worked incredibly long hours in the preparation, response and recovery phases” of the cyclone.

“Approximately $1.1 million was paid in overtime to staff during the event. As CEO, I couldn’t be prouder of our teams’ efforts to keep our community informed and action recovery plans to return the city to normal as quickly as possible. All works are due to be completed by Easter,” he said.

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Originally published as Tom Tate: The north and south of the city responded differently in preparing for cyclone