More funding announced for devastated south-east
Now to Queensland where in the aftermath of the devastating flooding there a long recovery is underway, but more support is on the way.
Transcript
00:00 The Federal Government and the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, this morning on the Gold
00:06 Coast announced an additional $20 million as part of a clean-up package, not only for
00:11 here in the South East following those devastating severe thunderstorms that lashed the region
00:16 over the Christmas period, but also for the far north in the aftermath of ex-tropical
00:21 cyclone Jasper. We have had initial damage assessments done. It's revealed 39 homes that
00:28 have been completely ridden off in both the far north and the South East, 10 in the South
00:32 East and 29 in the far north. So it is quite a significant and long recovery. Here in the
00:38 South East, the Gold Coast, Scenic Rim and Logan areas were lashed and bore the brunt
00:43 of those severe thunderstorms. Even today we've seen debris on roads, trees that have
00:48 fallen, so it is going to be a mammoth clean-up effort. And so we also heard from the Prime
00:53 Minister, Anthony Albanese, that an additional $1 million will be dedicated to those areas.
00:57 It has been nearly two weeks since those events and nearly 130,000 homes along the South East
01:07 had been without power. On Sunday, most were restored. Some are still about without power,
01:13 but now it's up to individual contractors to reconnect those homes individually. It
01:17 is a significant damage result that we've seen and many people are still reeling from
01:22 the aftermath. We did hear from the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, who said that
01:28 it is going to be a long road to recovery. We know that there is more to do and we're
01:33 here to say that we're putting our shoulder to the wheel to make sure that can be done.
01:38 It's been a very difficult period, particularly coming, as it did, around Christmas and New
01:44 Year, a time when people look forward to celebrating the relationships they have with family and
01:51 friends, not going through the tough time that they had. So my heart goes out to all
01:57 those who have been directly affected and I say that governments, federal, state and
02:02 local will be here with you.
02:05 So how are locals there feeling, Ari?
02:09 Well this morning, many locals here in the Springfield area where I am are pretty much
02:14 a little bit upset and anxious because they saw so much water rise so quickly to this
02:19 area. Within a three hour period we saw up to 131 millimetres of rainfall. It is quite
02:25 significant and we did see water levels across the region rise significantly, even inundating
02:30 some homes. I spoke to one local resident, Janelle Ryan, who says that her home she bought
02:36 a year ago and previous property owners said that the major flooding level of 2022 was
02:42 going to just reach the backyard. This morning she woke up to basically a waterfront property.
02:48 That level had doubled from this flash flooding event. It was quite significant, just rain
02:53 that was sitting over the Logan Ipswich area and just hammering down. This morning, this
02:59 body of water behind me would have been where I'm standing right now, ankle deep in water,
03:04 so it is quite significant. Many local residents across the South East say that they do need
03:09 a lot more support. It is a trying time, especially over the holiday period where we saw these
03:14 weather events lash the region. Now, the Premier, Stephen Miles, has even said that this recovery
03:20 effort is no longer going to take just months, it's going to be years in the making and the
03:24 cost blowout has been estimated to be around $2 billion, but again that is just preliminary
03:30 figures. The water and the grounds here in the South East are sodden and soaked. We've
03:34 had relentless rain over the last two weeks, so it is quite a significant concern for many
03:39 in the area.
03:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]