Flood victims to hit rock bottom

IPSWICH Mayor Paul Pisasale fears that Queensland flood victims will hit "rock bottom" during the Easter break.

IPSWICH Mayor Paul Pisasale fears that Queensland flood victims denied insurance payouts or enough help to get on with their lives will hit "rock bottom" during the Easter break, as desperation and depression set in.

Their plight was being compounded by the expiry of holidays on mortgage and loan payments from the banks, and also of free rent deals that got displaced families through the immediate aftermath of the floods.

"After 12 weeks we're coming into Easter, this is when the depression is setting in," Mr Pisasale said. "The key thing that people have got to realise is that they're not alone."

Wednesday will mark 100 days since deadly flash floods hit Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley communities, west of Brisbane, claiming most of the 35 lives lost in southeast Queensland's flood disaster. The toll also includes the death of a man who was suffocated by generator fumes after Cyclone Yasi struck north Queensland on February 3.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said thousands of people remained unable to return to homes in flood- and cyclone-devastated areas of the state, extending from near Cairns, where Yasi hit, to the low-lying suburbs of Ipswich and Brisbane that were inundated following the crisis in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley.

She said the banks should have a heart, as a freeze of up to 90 days on mortgage and other repayments for disaster victims came to an end.

"While we see these sorts of areas starting to recover, there are still thousands of Queenslanders who are not back in their homes," Ms Bligh said at the weekend.

"They are renting or staying with families and still paying a mortgage on a home that they can't live in. I ask the banks to continue to show compassion. People are hurting, people are still waiting on answers from their insurance companies.

"Or if they have got an answer, they are waiting on builders and they are not even back in their homes."

Mr Pisasale fired a rocket at insurance companies for delays in assessing flood-damage claims.

"It has been 100 days and they haven't been able to say yes or no, whether it was flooded," he said.

In nearby Goodna, local councillor Paul Tully said only one in 20 residents who had their properties severely flooded had returned. He is among them: his own home was submerged to the roof.

"It is an eerie experience going back after dark and seeing nothing around," he said.

People were doing the best they could to rebuild their lives.

"There is a degree of cheerfulness in the community, not a lot of despondency," he said.

"Not everyone is back in their homes, and they're very angry with insurance companies, but they're getting on with their lives.

"There is a degree of hopefulness that things can only get better."

Additional reporting: Jared Owens