Out of the frying pan: Flood victims sent to town low on water, with only three days of food
A community escaping floodwaters in far north Queensland is set to be evacuated to a town that is low on water and has only three days of food left.
Cooktown, north of Cairns, had been preparing to take in the entire 300-strong population of nearby Wujal Wujal after ex-tropical cyclone Jasper brought record rainfall.
Wet weather forced the operation to be postponed, with most residents of the Aboriginal community set to be relocated to Cooktown from early Tuesday.
Two Australian Defence Force Chinooks and AW139 helicopters are flying from Townsville to Cairns on Tuesday morning before deploying emergency personnel to assist in the evacuation.
Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy said a number of houses were lost due to flooding in Wujal Wujal on Monday and residents are doing it tough waiting for evacuation.
He said there is a plan to evacuate vulnerable persons first with police liaising directly with Cooktown council and state government agencies for alternate housing options.
Favourable weather conditions will allow helicopters to evacuate Wujal Wujal residents and supply Cooktown with food and water supplies on Tuesday, Mr Chelepy said.
“We know we’ve only got another day’s worth of water in that town, we’ve had impacts to food, power, overall water and that’s why we’re doing the evacuation today,” he told ABC Radio Brisbane.
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“We couldn’t get in yesterday. But today it looks good, the weather’s clear.”
The evacuation comes as the weather bureau reports floodwaters are receding across the region and federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt says recovery efforts can now begin.
The Cooktown region’s mayor said he would be scrambling to boost dwindling food and supplies before the arrival of evacuees.
“We are ourselves low on food and supplies,” Cook Shire mayor Peter Scott told AAP.
“We’ve still got enough tucker for another three days.
“We’ve also got water restrictions at the moment because our water treatment plant was flooded.
“We are running around trying to get food, blankets, that sort of stuff.
Mr Scott insisted the town could still host the evacuees with the Cooktown PCYC equipped to house up to 1000 people.
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“Wujal Wujal have copped it very badly,” he said.
“Some of those poor people have been on the roof of their houses for two or three nights with no power, no communication, no food probably.”
About 16 people – including a seven-year-old boy at Wujal Wujal hospital – were stuck on rooftops before getting to higher ground on Monday.
But nine people remained on top of houses at nearby Degarra and Bloomfield.
Mr Scott said the access road to the town has been washed away and the only route in is by air.
“The river is running too strong to think about barges or boats,” he said.
Sarah Scully of the Bureau of Meteorology told ABC TV on Tuesday morning that river gauges are steadily falling, with most rivers at moderate or below moderate flood levels.
“Even the Barron, the major river that moves through Cairns, that’s now in minor flood warning. The good thing about the tropics is that they do recover very quickly from flooding,” she said.
The falling flood levels meant Cairns Airport was set to reopen on Tuesday.
Senator Watt said the good news that floodwaters were receding across the region meant Tuesday could be the beginning of the recovery effort.
“I expect we’re going to see a very large amount of property damage … I think we’re up for a pretty expensive repair bill,” the minister told ABC TV.
Senator Watt said in coming days the federal and state governments would look at making more financial assistance available to individuals, small businesses and primary producers, ahead of longer term recovery payments around infrastructure.
“The Albanese government will be standing very closely with far north Queensland as it recovers,” he said.
