South Burnett Regional Council has called another Local Disaster Management Group meeting this morning to assess the damage of last night’s storms, with Mayor Kathy Duff saying road repair costs have already climbed well past a quarter of a million dollars.
A series of severe thunderstorms battered the region on the night of Wednesday 18 December, with over 60 roads still blocked due to damage or flooding at time of writing the following morning.
In response to the heavy rain and subsequent flooding, the LDMG last night raised its activation level to ‘Stand Up’; following the 19 December meeting, it has now stood down again.
The region’s council this morning brought representatives together from State Emergency Service crews, police, and other stakeholders to survey the damage to the road and infrastructure network and devise a plan of attack.
South Burnett mayor Kathy Duff said motorists should visit the region’s emergency dashboard before heading out onto the roads, but added a warning that not all flooded or damaged roads may be listed on council’s maps yet.
“Some of the roads are not [listed on the dashboard] because council haven’t been able to get to them – so just be careful and drive safely,” Mayor Duff said.
She explained that council crews tasked with surveying the damage found themselves cut off by flooding or damaged roads on numerous occasions last night, making their job of providing an accurate overview of the region’s road conditions difficult.
“Ideally we want people to (…) stay off the road if they can,” the mayor said.
Mayor Duff urged locals who come across any damage to council-owned roads – be it flooding, fallen trees or other issues – to get in touch with her team.
Owing to the widespread damage caused by last night’s storms, the region’s residents have already begun bombarding council with road reports and maintenance requests.
Mayor Duff said she and council’s after-hours emergency team had been fielding calls from the public “nonstop” since the storms tore through the region yesterday.
In describing the scope of the damage across the region “terrible” the mayor urged her constituents to have patience with council crews as they work to assess the situation.
“Council staff are doing their best, they’re working around the clock to get the road back safe so people can travel,” Mayor Duff said.
“Just be patient with council and drive to the conditions.”
She explained that repairing the road network will be a long and costly affair.
“We are going to be activating Disaster Relief and Recovery Funding Arrangements money,” Mayor Duff said.
“That means that the State and Federal Governments are going to fund all these roads – then we can do emergency work.
“That’s only just to get the road back and running, so people can travel on it.
“Then we have to go through a whole process where they assess the road, decide whether it’s in or out of flood damage, and it takes a long time to get it fixed,” she explained.
Council has to have sustained over $250,000 in damage to be eligible for the DRFA money – a figure the region’s mayor reckons had been surpassed even before last night’s heavy storms, though she could not speak on the exact amount.
“I’m assuming that [figure of $250,000] would be doubled or tripled by now, because there was just so much damage with the extra rain last night,” Mayor Duff said.
“We should know sooner rather than later if we’ve been declared a disaster area,” she said.
“Then we’ll have to go through the whole process [to access the funding] which does take time. But the emergent works can get done straight away.”
When asked about a timeline for the emergency repairs – whether people will be able to travel or return home for Christmas – the mayor said she was confident her team could manage to get the job done within the tight timeframe, though a number of roads would likely remain closed until they have been assessed and repaired by council and TMR.
“We’ve got to keep people on the roads, keep people safe,” Mayor Duff said.
Before you drive, check council’s emergency dashboard on dashboard.southburnett.qld.gov.au.
Never drive through floodwater. In an emergency, call Triple Zero (000).
