Exclusive: Coast respond to cyclone threat with $100 million to build stronger shelters
The Christmas Eve “tornado” was a strong as a Category 2 cyclone causing $1.8 billion in damage and exposed a “gaping hole” in lack of shelters on the Gold Coast, warns a new report.
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The Christmas “tornado” was a strong as a Category 2 cyclone, causing $1.8 billion in damage and exposing a “gaping hole” in lack of shelters on the Gold Coast, warns a new report.
Councillors at a closed door briefing at the lifestyle, environment, heritage and resilience committee were told the city’s risk to extreme cyclonic events will increase.
A council source said: “That wind event, the tornado whatever you want to call it – the wind speeds showed a Category Two cyclone. One of the things it exposed was a glaring large hole. Where do we put our people.”
Gold Coast City Council is to respond with Program AIR, a five-year plan which will see $100 million to help cyclone proof the Coast.
Councillors were told the Christmas New-Year wind and flood event gave a “valuable insight into the impact from a tropical cyclone” and “the realisation that such a risk has the potential to cause widespread catastrophic impacts to the Gold Coast community”.
Committee chair Councillor Glenn Tozer confirmed both the $1.8 billion damage bill and council’s vow to improve its preparation for serious weather events.
The budget for Program Air would need to be endorsed by all councillors, he said.
“The City is now responding to the severe wind hazard assessment South East Queensland report which identified that our city was ill equipped to deal with the impacts of heavy wind weather,” Cr Tozer said, outside the meeting.
“A quarter of that money will be allocated to retrofit to buildings that we have existing, and hopefully make them resilient to a Category Three impact, that is critical important.”
More than 100,000 homes risk complete damage based on modelling of a Category 5 cyclone when wind gusts exceed 250km/h.
Those winds increase to 300km/h in the hinterland during a cyclone, creating more damage.
Mayor Tom Tate, in a response to the report at the time, said the safety of people and property was the number one priority for the City and it would “remain ahead of the curve”.
Cr Tozer said the work during the next five years would include severe wind risk planning, targeted community engagement and detailed resilient design development for future City infrastructure projects.
Residents are currently left with few options but to seek shelter in shopping centres and community halls, some not able to withstand severe cyclone events.
COUNCIL PRESENTATION — IMPACT OF CHRISTMAS-NEW YEAR DISASTER
This is how the disaster played out on Christmas night and the days which followed:
* Wind gusts of “106km/h officially, up to 160kmp unofficially” – equal to a high end Category 2 cyclone. At 8.45pm, the BOM says “this thunderstorm is very dangerous”.
* More than 200 emergency calls to the fire service alone, many relating to entrapments and rescues. On Boxing Day, it is confirmed a resident had died.
* 73 roads inaccessible, multiple reports of significant damage to homes
* 83,000 homes without power, communication networks down, impacting calls to triple-0.
* 149 calls for to police, 20 of those priority one jobs, Queensland Ambulance Service has a 20 per cent spike in triple-0 calls, 765 SES jobs are reported.
* 12 of 22 traffic cameras are offline, creating road chaos. Heavy rail stopped.
* A heatwave follows, with relief hubs opened at Pimpama, Mudgeeraba, Upper Coomera, Nerang and Pacific Pines.
* Heavy rainfall causes flash flooding, sandbag stations opened. Beaches are closed.
* Fire officers begin conducting over 3064 damage assessments – four properties destroyed, 430 homes with severe or moderate damage.
* Vegetation and debris impacts “decimates our power infrastructure network” with Energex starts “monumental repairs” to rectify the damage,
A report estimates more than hundred residential properties are “inhabitable”.
“This produced a temporary shelter need for impacted individuals as well as a longer-term housing repair and reconstruction need,” the report said.
“Significantly there were suburbs or pockets of suburbs that went without power for more than eight days. Other locations experienced between three – seven days without reliable electricity producing an immediate need for essentials such as food, water and medicine.
“This was amplified in some locations due to access issues with downed power lines and debris.”
The disaster event has a “psychosocial impact on our community” – calls for help highlight “significant stress and mental health impacts”.
The City’s tourism industry is impacted in terms of arrivals and closures of some parks.
“There have been over 600 businesses impacted in some way as a result of this event either through direct physical damage to equipment and infrastructure or by disrupting service delivery,” the report says.
WHAT THE SEVERE WIND HAZARD REPORT WARNS
The Commonwealth chose to investigate the Gold Coast as a case study because federal government agencies feared the city due to population growth and older housing could sustain worse damage than any other regional area.
* A minimum of 23,578 homes would be completely destroyed and in the worst scenario, almost 35,000 extensively damaged and 100,455 flattened in a Category 5.
* A Category 3 weather event would still create winds of around 220km/h, much higher than the 170km/h reached during the 1954 Gold Coast Cyclone which saws roofs lost off Southport homes and jetties destroyed.
* Mapping shows the most impacted areas would be in the hinterland, at Ferny Glen and the Numinbah Valley south to the Tallebudgera Valley.
* Mudgeeraba along with Nerang, Maudsland and Oxenford just west of the M1 would have extensive residential home damage.
* Parts of Jacobs Well and Norwell in the cane fields in the city’s north are also impacted under this modelling. Growth northern suburbs like Ormeau and Kingsholme escape with no damage.
* Homes sitting on the coastline, south of Paradise Point to Runaway Bay along with those at Parkwood and Arundel could expect major damage.
* A cyclone was predicted to cross at South South Stradbroke Island reach greater than 280km/h through to Main Beach and Surfers Paradise.
* The winds behind the foreshore then drop to around 200km/h in suburban areas but they top 300km/h in the hinterland as winds pick up speed climbing up the terrain.
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