Floodwaters start to slowly recede in outback Queensland

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Floodwaters are slowly beginning to recede in outback Queensland after parts of the state were hit by their heaviest falls, in decades. Hundreds of volunteers are standing by to help devastated communities.

Transcript

00:00I'm here in Longreach where the Thompson River is finally on its way down.

00:06It's been steadily rising over the last couple of days but peaked yesterday and has dropped

00:11overnight but it is slow going.

00:13The Queensland Premier David Christopher was out here on Wednesday and he said then that

00:17the recovery phase starts now but the reality for a lot of people in outback Queensland

00:22is that's just not possible and that is what makes this weather event so different from

00:26other natural disasters which usually come and go very quickly and within a couple of

00:30days residents are able to get in and start the cleanup and try to get their lives back

00:34on track but for a lot of people this is now the second week and they can't start the cleanup

00:39because their towns are still underwater.

00:42In other towns the floodwaters have gone down, the sun is shining but that means all the

00:46mud that has been left behind is starting to dry, it's getting baked on and that's going

00:51to make the cleanup even more difficult.

00:53Ergon crews have been doing a fantastic job, they've been getting airdropped into a lot

00:57of the worst affected areas, getting mains power reconnected but many properties in those

01:02towns have been so badly damaged they will need work from private electrical contractors

01:07before they're safe enough to reconnect to the grid.

01:10Jake Elwood from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority spoke to the ABC a short time ago

01:15from Charleville where he gave an update on the operation.

01:18There have been a number of communities that have been inundated so making sure that they're

01:22getting the support, making sure that they get the washouts, all that type of thing and

01:27then making sure that they have an opportunity to fully recover.

01:30We provided $5 million grants provided between the Commonwealth and State Government for

01:35fodder relief and we've just had announced $75,000 grants for our primary producers which

01:41is a wonderful start for them to get back on their feet.

01:45It's going to be a very complex operation, to give you an example the little town of

01:49Jundah about 200 kilometres southwest of where we are in Longreach, it was devastated

01:54by floodwaters.

01:55The water has gone down there now but access is still the main issue.

01:59The main road, the highway into town was washed away, Main Road's crews came and repaired

02:05the road, it had reopened and then all that rain we had a couple of days ago washed the

02:09road away again.

02:11It has just reopened only for locals and essential services so people can go home to start the

02:16clean up.

02:17We tried to get access into there today, I spoke to police to try to get permission,

02:21they said they were happy for us to go so long as we jumped in with an emergency services

02:26vehicle but the issue is all the emergency services are still flying because the condition

02:31of the road is so bad.

02:32What is usually a two hour drive has now become a three and a half hour drive one way and

02:37so emergency services say they can't afford to lose seven hours of sunlight, it doesn't

02:43leave them enough time to help those people and get the work done.

02:47The road we are hoping is going to reopen for public use tomorrow, it will be reduced

02:53speeds but that's just for light vehicles, not for trucks and so all the big supply runs

02:59are still going to have to happen by air.

03:01That situation is going to be repeated Dan in many towns across outback Queensland and

03:06so for that reason this recovery effort is going to be a marathon and not a sprint.

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