Military deployed to help with Queensland storm clean-up

It’s been 10 days since a freak tornado ripped through Queensland’s southeast corner and trees are still strewn through the streets, rotting debris is littering homes and thousands remain without power.

Bernie Hardiman inside his home that was severely damaged by the Christmas Day storms when the Coomera River flooded. Picture: Adam Head

It’s been 10 days since a freak tornado ripped through Queensland’s southeast corner and trees are still strewn through the streets, rotting debris is littering homes and thousands remain without power.

About 50 Australian Defence Force will be deployed on Thursday to relieve stretched volunteer crews and help with Queensland’s storm clean-up amid growing community anger over the slow response to disaster recovery.

Single father Bernie Hardiman and his six-year-old son BJ returned to their Coomera home, on the northern end of the Gold Coast, on Wednesday to find a gaping hole still in the roof and most of their furniture ruined.

Not waiting for the troops to arrive, Mr Hardiman did what he could to mop up the mess.

“People want help immediately, yes, but we can’t expect too much,” he said.

“They (authorities) can only do what they can do and these things take planning and time.”

Mr Hardiman, who is in temporary accommodation, thinks it will be months before his home is repaired.

“I think I’ll be starting from scratch,” he said.

Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli said more help was needed on the ground, given it had been weeks since floods ravaged north Queensland and deadly storms ripped through the southeast.

“If not the army then who? Authorities cannot just leave communities to wither on the vine,” he told The Australian.

“The waste and debris I’ve seen at both ends of the state will remain and indefinitely hinder the recovery unless communities see boots on the ground.”

Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt approved the troop deployment on Tuesday after a formal request from Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate was sent on Monday evening.

Mr Tate has defended the decision to delay requesting ADF support because “the focus was about getting through the storm events”. The Commonwealth’s growing reluctance to send troops follows a defence strategic review which in April warned the ADF’s primary objective was “defending Australia” and that natural disasters had already “negatively impacted force preparedness, readiness, and combat effectiveness”.

Mr Watt said the Commonwealth had approved the deployment of ADF less than 12 hours after receiving Mr Tate’s request and had already sent veteran volunteers from Disaster Ready Australia. Mr Hardiman was among thousands of residents in Queensland’s southeast who used Wednesday’s break in the weather to survey damage from weeks of wild weather.

More than 7000 properties in the southeast were still without power on Wednesday evening as thousands of residents begin lodging insurance claims.

Insurance giant Suncorp has received a total of 12,500 claims from Queenslanders since November, of which 9500 were home claims.

The SES, which has suffered dwindling volunteer numbers in recent years, has responded to 5370 calls since Christmas Day.

In Far North Queensland, where ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper dumped metres of rain in mid-December, Douglas Shire mayor Michael Kerr pleaded for the immediate mobilisation of ‘hundreds’ of ADF troops to help in clean-up efforts.

Speaking from Cairns on Wednesday, Acting Premier Cameron Dick said 650km of state-controlled roads had now been reopened.

“The Far North has copped a big whack, but we are going flat out to get everything up and running again,” he said.