Alice Springs MP rolls up his sleeves to help devastated community clean-up in wake of storm
A school remained closed as the Alice Springs community worked hard to restore the town after a devastating storm. Support is flowing in from Darwin. See the photos of the devastation.
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The Alice Springs’ community spirit has seen the town pull together after a severe thunderstorm swept through the streets on Saturday night.
Police received 132 reports of trees and power lines down or damaged across private premises and public roads.
Namatjira MLA Bill Yan praised the quick response of emergency services as the town started cleaning up on Monday.
“I’m told they’re bringing additional people down from Darwin to help out in Alice,” he said.
Mr Yan said Power and Water’s teams were: “Going really hard to get everything back up”.
Though his own home had minimal damage, Mr Yan said he “went around and cleared a couple of roads” with the community.
“Strangers helping strangers, neighbours helping neighbours, is what makes our community what it is,” he said.
Yipirinya School experienced considerable damage to its roof and was closed on Monday.
Mr Yan said it would remain closed until it was in “some semblance of shape” and was safe to enter and it was too early to know if students would be redirected to other schools during the closure.
Other schools in the region were safe and able to open at the start of the school week.
Resident Shane Martyn said emergency services could not access some areas due to the road blockages on Saturday but the community’s response to the storm’s aftermath was “instant”.
He said his neighbours safely cleared the roads with trucks and 4WDs while his wife was on hold to triple-zero.
“The community spirit was what cleared that highway really quickly,” Mr Martyn said.
“That’s how the Territory people, that’s how we roll.”
Mr Martyn said the storm itself was “insane”.
“It literally felt like someone was outside with a hose on your window,” he said.
Mr Martyn said his home was one of many to experience a power outage soon after the storm’s “white-out” at 5.30pm.
He said his wife quickly filled Eskies with ice to store perishables because the household had no secondary generator to keep the fridge running.
“You almost need to be cyclone-ready in the middle of the Territory,” he said.
Mr Martyn said his power was restored between 12.30am and 1am on Sunday.
Businesses in the town had to change their operations to prioritise customers’ safety and welfare.
Alice Springs Realty cancelled five of Sunday’s open-house events.
Real estate agent Drew Hendriks said there was “no severe damage” to the company’s properties but cancelling the showings was the “responsible” thing to do.
SecureNT said the town’s restoration is underway and warned residents to be vigilant when driving due to unexpected objects and community members assisting in the clean-up.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles, who was in Alice Springs during the storm, said the NT Government was doing everything it could to support residents in the storm’s aftermath.
“We have stood up the Emergency Operations Centre, we’re working across Government, there’s an incident management team that is coming together,” she said on Sunday.
“It is a large number of government agencies working together to make sure that the community is safe and get services back up as quickly as possible.
“I’ve experienced it, I have been on the ground this morning, can see the damage to people’s homes, the damage to the community and particularly heartbreaking is the damage to the Yipirinya School.”
Billy Lynch, a meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said the thunderstorm was a “microburst”.
It was a “burst of short-lived but violent winds,” he said.
Wind gusts at the Alice Springs airport reached 76km/h but Mr Lynch estimates the region’s gusts likely exceeded 100km/h based on the town’s damage.
“This would be one of the strongest storms Alice has seen in recent times,” he said.
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