Northern clean-up, paying it forward and “no SES help”: How Coasters are dealing with the aftermath of brutal Christmas evening storms
Efforts in the Northern Gold Coast double down as residents try to recover from Christmas evening cyclonic storms before the weekend sets up. See the photos.
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Residents across the battered northern Gold Coast have doubled down on their recovery efforts as threats of another destructive storm loom large.
Oxenford residents Adam and Carma Bailey have spent the days since Christmas evening cleaning up the remains of their roof that flew off during the storm, littering their pool and backyard.
Drone footage reveals the scale of the damage to their home of eight years.
Mr Bailey and their daughter, Jesse, were at his parents’ house awaiting Mrs Bailey’s return when the vicious storm struck on Christmas evening.
“As [Carma] was coming home, the cyclone started coming so we lost power pretty early and the gates were locked ... she was in a van outside with my brother,” Mr Bailey said.
He said he and his daughter were stuck on the ground floor of the house when the storm “punched a hole in the roof”, with water flooding the stairwell.
“Next minute there was creaking and groaning and the roof of the top storey collapsed,” he said.
Mrs Bailey said as she was in the van with Mr Bailey’s brother as gates started flying in front of them.
“I thought we were going to tip over, there was another little car that was still driving up the road and he was sliding across the road the wind was so strong,
“We definitely thought we were going to die that’s for sure... if anything flew in the window we could have been gone in seconds,” she said.
Yet to see SES crews, the small businessowners put a tarp across their roof themselves.
“I didn’t know how long they were and more rain kept on coming,” Mr Bailey said.
Just around the corner from Mr Bailey’s house, Oxenford SPAR Express owner Duncan Harvey said he was one of the fortunate few to never lose power.
“We’re just in a little pocket here that is connected to the substation that powers Movieworld,” Mr Harvey said.
“We’ve been the only shop open for two days it’s been absolute chaos.”
Mr Harvey said those coming into his store had been “paying it forward” in what he described as “amazing” acts of kindness.
“We lost EFTPOS and people didn’t have cash, (so) other people were offering to pay for them,” he said.
Despite being forced to throw out about $15,000 worth of stock due to power outages, Coomera Waters IGA owner Jarrod Nevell said he was one of the luckier business owners.
“We got our refrigerated truck here pretty quickly so we probably saved 80 per cent of the stuff,” Mr Nevell said.
“Mostly IGAs have lost everything. I’m not sure about Coles or Woolies, but I think we were lucky not to lose more.”
He said it became “obvious pretty quick” that small businesses were on their own, with little help being offered by the authorities.
Premier Steven Miles confirmed on Wednesday that storm-affected residents would be able to apply for Disaster Hardship Funding of $180 per person or $900 for families.
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