Queenslanders Start to Recover from Cyclone Larry

INNISFAIL, Queensland, Australia, March 27, 2006 (ENS) - One week after Cyclone Larry swept across Far North Queensland, hundreds of residents still are homeless, but relief efforts and neighborly generosity are beginning to alleviate the devastation.

The category 5 cyclone struck Innisfail, population 8,500, a coastal sugar cane and banana farming town that is a starting point for visitors to this area of the Great Barrier Reef. The March 20 storm caused no fatalities.

There is still no official count of the homeless, but Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said 55 percent of homes in Innisfail had been damaged. Eighty percent of houses in Babinda, north of Innisfail, were destroyed and Mission Beach, to the south, was also blasted by the storm.

A pair of Northern Territory pensioners with little money have decided to give generously to a Queensland couple whose home was destroyed by Cyclone Larry.

Barry and June Naysmith from Bynoe decided to donate their caravan, or trailer, to an elderly couple from Babinda. The Naysmiths had no money to give, so instead they donated the A$12,000 caravan to Percy and Faye Lowe.

The Lowes, like many people in the region, bore the full force of the cyclone and were left homeless. Their emergency accommodation in Cairns runs out on Tuesday. NQX Freight Services is donating transportation of the caravan from Bynoe to Cairns, completing the circle of generosity.

Heavy rains fell over the coastal region all last week, flooding many areas and making tough slogging for response crews.

"Personnel involved in the response and recovery process are doing their utmost in difficult circumstances to provide immediate relief and to assist people in these devastated areas to get back on their feet again," said Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.

A main street in Innisfail is littered with debris from Cyclone Larry. (Photo courtesy City of Innisfail)

Queensland authorities say the most critical assistance currently required is aerial support to make damage assessments. Assistance also is being coordinated to help transport a medical team into the area.

“As the weather begins to clear, a better assessment of the damage can be made and we will be able to provide a broader range of assistance to the people of Queensland,” Ruddock said.

Agencies assisting in the recovery include the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, Coastwatch, Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Defence Force, Department of Transport and Regional Services, Department of Health and Ageing, Department of Family and Community Services, along with emergency services agencies from other states and territories.

General Peter Cosgrove, who is in charge of Queensland's recovery, has called on the state and federal governments to pledge more money as the estimated cost of Cyclone Larry tops $1 billion.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said today that the Cyclone Larry Relief Fund now stands at more than A$8 million. The governments of Queensland and the Commonwealth each put in A$1.1 million and the Commonwealth Bank gave A$1 million.

But General Cosgrove, a former Defence chief said, "We will need hundreds of millions."

"I know it's more than we presently have got allocated and therefore the State and Commonwealth are going to have to take a very careful look at this.

Profiteers who are elevating prices of goods such as batteries and long life milk and services to clear debris in the devastated areas of Innisfail are risking the wrath of Premier Beattie and General Cosgrove.

Consumer affairs officers are looking into complaints, and the premier told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation today that he would publicize the identities of profiteers. "If anybody is, in our view, ripping people off then I'll have no hesitation in highlighting that to the whole community and that'll do them enormous damage," he said.

Beattie said cyclone recovery costs could reach A$1.5 billion.

Australian Army soldiers from Townsville chainsaw and remove fallen trees in the streets of Innisfail after Cyclone Larry. Some 400 Australian Defence Forces are assisting with cyclone response. (Photo courtesy Australian Defence Force)

Governor-General Michael Jeffery flew to Innisfail today as mayors from all the cyclone-affected shires are meeting to discuss recovery plans.

Cyclone Larry may have left a trail of damage 150 kilometers wide through the Great Barrier Reef and damaged 95 percent of rainforests where it struck the coast, authorities say.

But Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell declared today that the Great Barrier Reef remains "well and truly open for business in the wake of Cyclone Larry."

Senator Campbell said only a very small area – around one percent – was likely to have suffered any significant damage from the cyclone. The vast majority of the world's largest reef is still "in great shape," he said.

"It's important to note that the Great Barrier Reef stretches more than 2,300 kilometers, but the area severely affected is unlikely to be more than a band of about 20 to 30 km wide," he said, citing an estimate offered by Dr. David Wachenfeld, of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA).

But Wachenfeld said the damage may have extended for 50 to 60 kilometers on either side of the worst area for a maximum total of a 150 kilometer wide strip of broken corals.

It has not yet been possible for GBRMPA scientists to examine the reef to assess damage, but they currently are organizing a survey of the affected area.

"The Great Barrier Reef has demonstrated its remarkable resilience following other tropical cyclones in the past – largely because it is one of the world's healthiest reef ecosystems," said the minister.

"Some scientists are even saying that Cyclone Larry may actually have had a positive impact on the Great Barrier Reef, because the cyclone has had the effect of cooling ocean temperatures so that there is less likelihood of coral bleaching," Campbell said. "Massive amounts of water will have been turned over, dissipating the upper warm layer which is between 10 and 20 meters thick."

The devastation caused by Cyclone Larry has left some people wondering if climate change was to blame and if we are likely to see more such storms in future as sea temperatures rise, said the Australian Conservation Foundation (AFC).

While it is impossible to attribute any single weather event to global warming, meteorologists generally agree climate change will increase cyclone intensity, on average, because hotter ocean surface temperatures will feed more energy into weather systems, said the AFC.

ACF President Professor Ian Lowe addressed the issue of cyclones and climate change in his keynote speech to a Greening Australia conference on Wednesday, saying, "The cost to banana and sugar producers alone of Cyclone Larry is being estimated at around A$500 million dollars. The Commonwealth government has justified its failure to develop a concerted response to climate change by saying that it would be too expensive. I say doing nothing and living with the consequences of climate change is too expensive."