Hinchinbrook flood disaster: Lou’s Food Emporium open and trading

An Ingham Italian delicatessen which was forced to dispose of $70,000 worth of produce during the Hinchinbrook flood disaster is fighting to stay afloat.

Lou’s Food Emporium on Lannercost St, Ingham's main street, during the Hinchinbrook flood disaster. The Italian delicatessen lost $70,000 of high-end food alone after the business was inundated by torrential rain. Owner Errol Morris was forced to sleep 14 nights on the steps outside his deli. Picture: Cameron Bates

An Ingham Italian delicatessen and eatery forced to dispose of $70,000 worth of high-end food during the Hinchinbrook flood disaster is continuing its fight to stay afloat.

Errol Morris, owner of Lou’s Food Emporium, said he was forced to sleep outside the destroyed business on Lannercost St in the Ingham CBD for 14 trying nights after floodwaters severed the Bruce Highway and access to his Cardwell home.

“I slept on the front step … I was given a little blow-up mattress that he got from Cash Converters, that would only stay (inflated) for about 90 minutes so I was pretty much sleeping on the tiles the whole time.”

Mr Morris said his property was not touched by ‘floodwaters’ but inundated by rain that poured through the roof.

“That intense rain that we got, boom boom, Friday and Saturday, and then Sunday (February 2), that’s when they turned the power off, that’s what totalled me then and after that ... everything just dripped for eight days, there was the black mould.”

“It was just too toxic in here, I couldn’t even sleep out there because of the humidity, wet, I didn’t want to catch a disease.”

Errol Morris, owner of Lou's Food Emporium, with employees Lillie Torrisi, Seanna Bennett and Jodie Coleman. The Ingham Italian delicatessen has been struggling to recover from the Hinchinbrook flood disaster but is now offering products such as olives, salamis, cheeses, sandwiches, coffees and canned produce, and is slowly restocking. Picture: Cameron Bates

Mr Morris said his business couldn’t trade for all of February before he resumed minimal trade in early March.

He said the deli now offered products such as olives, salamis, cheeses, sandwiches, coffees and canned produce and was slowly restocking.

Errol Morris has owned the decades old Ingham Italian delicatessen Lou's Food Emporium for the last nine years. Picture: Cameron Bates

Mr Morris said despite having comprehensive disaster insurance at a cost of $13,000 per year, he was “getting f---ing nothing” other than $20,000 for replacement cash registers and a cash hand-out to resume trade.

He said he had maintained staff wages to keep 10 people employed.

Mr Morris, who was supplying hungry locals with food before it spoiled during the peaks of the floods, said he was still awaiting a determination as to whether the flood was an “act of god because Ergon shut the power off” or the result of inundation from rain before he could get any payout, if at all.

He urged North Queenslanders to get behind Hinchinbrook businesses, including his own.

“Just drive through and have a coffee and come and say ‘g’day’, just to get us going again, to get us moving.”

Originally published as Hinchinbrook flood disaster: Lou’s Food Emporium open and trading