Qld storms: Power expected to be out for many into the new year
With almost 10,000 families affected by the wild Christmas Night storm expected to see in the new year without power, here’s when your suburb can expect to get its electricity back up and running.
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Almost 10,000 families affected by the wild Christmas Night storm will see in the new year without power as the recovery effort enters its third day.
While Energex estimates that 90 per cent of the 130,000 properties to lose power will be restored by the end of the year, residents of Mount Tamborine and Jimboomba face a much longer wait with power infrastructure needing to be completely rebuilt.
Speaking at a media conference on the Gold Coast, Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said those residents would be best served finding access to generators to get through the days and weeks ahead.
Energex spokesman Kevin Lavender said it was hard to put an accurate figure on the number of affected properties, but it was in the order of 6-8000.
He could also not give a time frame on when those properties might have power restored.
An Energex spokesperson earlier said they had more than 400 staff working to fix the extensive damage to power lines and grids across Queensland.
On Wednesday, residents of the disaster-ravaged Mount Tamborine called for the army to be mobilised to help with the repair effort, but Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said local and state leaders were satisfied the situation was under control.
“This has been discussed by both state government and federal government representatives both overnight and again this morning at my request but my understanding is that from the local and state government point of view, they have the resources necessary to be able to deal with the situation without the ADF (Australian Defence Force) being involved,” he said.
About 40 personnel from the State Emergency Service in NSW will arrive on the Gold Coast on Thursday, while crews dispatched to the North Queensland cyclone are also due to return to the coast.
So far power has been restored to about 65 per cent of properties with that figure to grow steadily over the coming days.
Tamborine Village residents called for the army to be brought in to help with the recovery, with one resident describing the wild weather as “the most insane natural disaster Tamborine has ever seen”.
Hannah Grace-Richardson said work began at 4am on Boxing Day to clean up their property, where trees were uprooted and fences destroyed.
Another resident, Callum Davison, said the damage was so extensive that the community was struggling to keep up.
“We have been at it for 24 hours on the chainsaws chopping through power poles and trying to get trees off the road,” he said.
“I can’t keep doing this. We are older people here, in the heat, no food. I mean, where the hell is the army?
“How can this not be an emergency? You just have to use your eyes.”
Bruce Webster’s Hinterland home was crushed by falling trees and he was still waiting for SES and emergency services. “I still don’t know what to think of it at the moment. Where do we start?” he said.
“We need help, it would be nice to have the army out here helping.
“With all the trees over roads, the power repairs can’t be done, which leaves us in the dark”.
Mundoolun, on Logan’s southern outskirts, resembled a war zone on Wednesday, with trees and powerlines strewn across the main road into town, and roofs ripped from homes.
Resident Steven Roberts said the winds were so strong they uprooted thick, tall trees across his front yard.
“It howled like no tomorrow, like something out of a horror movie,” Mr Roberts said.
“It came through like a champion. The rain was sideways and you could just hear the noise of the trees, they were snapping left, right and centre.
“It’s just like World War III through here, absolute chaos. There’s at least two weeks’ worth of work to clean all this up.”
Meanwhile, Brisbane resident Chris Ikin was in town helping to clear up his grandparents’ property in the nearby Mundoolun Estate.
The wind ripped the roof off the house across the road and dropped it in his grandparents’ back yard, while also sending one of the main roof beams through their garage door.
“We’ve had not just sheet panels, but pieces of the actual roof structure, come over the top of our grandparents’ house; there’s even bits of it in the tree 15-20m high,” Mr Ikin said.
“These trees have seen storms before – they’re 40m to 50m high gum trees. This is definitely the worst they have seen.
“There’s powerlines down, trees down everywhere, people are driving on all sides of the road just to get here.”
Northern Gold Coast resident Paul Boyton said on Wednesday he had contacted both the SES and council and was yet to receive any help or see volunteer crews on the ground.
He said it took four hours to find a tarp and ropes to patch over the holes in his roof and that he and friends had cleared much of the tree debris from his property themselves.
“(The storm) was pretty scary – we were just inside, and all you could hear was things crashing and breaking, and things hitting the house,” Mr Boyton said.
Helensvale couple Trish and Bob Avery arrived home on Tuesday morning to find their roof had been ripped from their home of 42 years.
Family members have since arrived to help them salvage what furniture and belongings they can – and the couple say it is the only assistance they have received so far.
“There’s a lot of houses along here that got damaged. Other people in the street were ringing the SES that night and they just weren’t answering,” Mr Avery said.
Disaster Recovery Minister Nikki Boyd said additional crews were being sent to the southeast, including 40 State Emergency Service staff who were expected to arrive from New South Wales by Thursday.
“SES has had what we anticipate what may be a record amount of phone calls for assistance,” she said.
“Just since Christmas we’ve seen 1600 calls through to the SES for assistance across Queensland and 1300 of them have been in the southeast corner.”
Premier Steven Miles insisted the local disaster management groups were coping with demand.
“They haven’t had to escalate up to a state level, let alone a federal level,” he said on Wednesday.
He said clean-up crews had prioritised areas bracing for further storms.
“So the SES crews are prioritising those jobs that will allow them to make those homes safe in the case of further storms,” Mr Miles said.
The state government activated Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) for the Gold Coast local government area which will allow personal hardship payments to flow to residents and to assist with infrastructure recovery.
“DRFA will see funding provided to the Gold Coast City Council for the reconstruction of essential public assets like roads and bridges, and for counter disaster operations including the removal of fallen trees and debris,” a Queensland Reconstruction Authority spokeswoman said.
“A range of other support measures will also be made available to eligible individuals to help repair a home, replace household contents, and reconnect essential services like electricity, water and sewerage.”
Energy Minister Mick de Brenni conceded the next few days would be “tough” for many of the thousands of people still without power.
“There is a lot of pressure on our first responders … (but) we prepare each and every year for this sort of perfect storm scenario.
“We apply layer upon layer of stress testing to our system and our people to make sure that they’re ready.
“It is going to be tough (but) I’m confident that they will get us through this.”
More than 1400 claims have been made to RACQ since December 23 across South East Queensland, with the majority of them from the Gold Coast and Logan.
About 654 home and motor claims were made on the Gold Coast, 213 at Logan, 133 in Toowoomba and 104 in Ipswich, with most relating to trees impacting homes, fences, sheds and water entering roofs.
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