Thousands of residents remain without power and water
In the race to clean up from the devastating Queensland storms interstate reinforcements have been called in to help weary SES volunteers and while parts of the state have had power and water restored thousands of other residents have been told it could take weeks.
Transcript
00:00 Far from the most wonderful time of year in South East Queensland, today the vessel that
00:06 overturned in Moreton Bay on Boxing Day, claiming three lives, was brought back to shore.
00:12 Friends Stephen Tate, David Logan and Rob Holden never made it home.
00:16 Our naval architect and our scenes of crime officers will go over it scientifically.
00:25 Days on from a freak tornado on Christmas, the Gold Coast community has been relying
00:30 on an army of chainsaw warriors.
00:32 We can help.
00:33 I have a chainsaw and yeah, I was like, well, why not?
00:37 Chris Dobbins lives in one of the worst hit suburbs.
00:41 After finishing with a clean up at his property, he grabbed his gear and has been driving the
00:45 streets helping others.
00:46 You can see them cry, nearly, and you don't ask for anything, you don't want anything
00:49 from them.
00:50 Just help them.
00:51 On Tambourine Mountain, using a network of industrial generators, Energex has restored
00:55 power to main street shops, but many homes are still in the dark and without running
01:00 water.
01:01 7,000 residents are desperate to know how much longer they'll be waiting.
01:05 It could be weeks.
01:06 We're trying to do the pieces we can to ease the burden in between that, because this will
01:11 be a long haul.
01:12 A tree crashed through Shakti Selwood's home.
01:15 She and her neighbours are making do with a generator and a tarp for the hole in the
01:19 roof.
01:20 It's just a massive clean up, because we know that it's going to be like this for a long
01:25 time.
01:26 The power is back on at Kurumban Wildlife Sanctuary, but the tourism sector is counting
01:30 the cost of days long closures.
01:32 This time of year is our peak time.
01:34 Guests from all over the world that come and see us, and to be closed for those two days
01:38 was a big impact.
01:39 This Kurumban supermarket lost signage and so much stock.
01:43 It breaks my heart to find even bin space to throw everything.
01:47 For these crews now, it's a race against time.
01:49 They're trying to clear as many trees from as many roofs as quickly as they can, so they
01:54 can be patched up with tarps, because there's more wild weather on the way.
01:58 Support for the SES has arrived from New South Wales, with another hundred volunteers from
02:02 Victoria expected tomorrow.
02:04 The help is not going unnoticed.
02:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]