St Helen’s business owners and residents in clean-up mode after floods hit Tasmania’s east-coast

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Residents in and around St Helens on Tasmania’s east coast are cleaning up and counting the cost of yesterday’s destructive storm. The downpour inundated several homes and businesses, while lightening damaged vital community infrastructure.

Transcript

00:00 Cleaning up after a severe thunderstorm.

00:06 It's something Attila Zachelli didn't think he would have to do after moving to Tasmania's

00:11 east coast from northern Queensland three years ago.

00:15 We moved out here to escape the tropics.

00:18 We're climate refugees and it's followed us, it's not fair.

00:23 His motel was completely flooded when an unusual, isolated storm hit St Helens and surrounding

00:29 areas yesterday.

00:30 We can't accommodate any of the guests that we've got for the foreseeable future.

00:34 My lounge, my bar, my kitchen, all of that's been taken out of operation at the moment

00:41 too.

00:42 Nearly 150mm of rain fell over the town.

00:47 Three homes suffered flood damage, displacing five people, and several businesses were also

00:54 damaged.

00:55 It wasn't just rain causing problems.

00:59 One lightning strike damaged the Marine Rescue Aerial Tower.

01:03 Absolutely fried every electronic bit of equipment that they've got here.

01:09 Everyone we've spoken to has described this event as being similar to a tropical thunderstorm.

01:15 At the oyster farm, this driveway became a river with almost a metre of water covering

01:20 it.

01:21 Like many in the community, these oyster farmers are still assessing the damage, but they believe

01:25 it will be significant.

01:26 It's closed our business down for operation, as in harvesting and producing stock for market

01:34 for the immediate term, probably up to two weeks, and maybe three.

01:40 Craig has owned the oyster farm since 1996 and says floods are becoming an increasing

01:47 problem.

01:48 Last year we were closed for 270 days out of 365, and that makes our business very,

01:57 very difficult.

01:59 The local council have spent around $3 million upgrading the stormwater systems over the

02:05 past decade.

02:07 But yesterday's downpour overwhelmed it.

02:10 We've done constant upgrades, as we always do, but when you have a storm of that magnitude,

02:16 the water, no matter how much the hole is, it'll fill up.

02:19 After enduring cyclones in north Queensland, Attila Zachelli says resilience is key to

02:25 getting through damaging weather events.

02:27 Just try to stay positive.

02:30 I've had big challenges in the past, and what I've found with all these sort of things,

02:35 you just work through them.

02:36 Keeping spirits high after the flood.

02:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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