Flood enormity comes to light as recovery kicks in

The true scale of the recovery effort is starting to emerge as communities continue the flood clean-up across Noosa.

Mayor Clare Stewart said council crews and community volunteers are working non-stop to restore flood-damaged properties and businesses.

“Council immediately responded to this devastation, diverting as much staff, resources and machinery to those worst impacted areas in the hinterland as possible,” Cr Stewart said.

“The community spirit has been uplifting and we will continue to assist to get our communities back on their feet.”

“Councillors have also been out, talking to local residents and seeing the impact first hand,” she said

Local Disaster Recovery Chair Cr Joe Jurisevic said repairs will take time.

“We have about 115 public assets that need to be assessed, including 83 roads, reserves and footpaths, 24 community assets such as picnic shelters, barbecues and community halls as well as four stormwater assets and four bus stops,” he said.

Cr Jurisevic said three significant landslips also require urgent attention.

“This is going to be a mammoth task and our crews are putting in a massive effort,” he said.

“All we ask is that the community be patient and give our staff and contractors time to assess the damage and respond.”

Data provided by Queensland Fire and Emergency show over 1300 rapid damage assessments were conducted across the shire.

Council’s Customer Service centre handled almost 600 disaster related calls, resulting in about 215 customer requests.

Cr Stewart said apart from the flood clean up, our environmental crews have been working overtime to tackle the washed up pontoons and polystyrene on our beaches.

“The community has been tremendous collecting what they can and council has managed to use beach grooming tractors along with a Big Beach Vacuum to speed up the collection process,” she said.

Council’s Environmental Health Officers have provided advice and support to about 50 businesses across the shire.

Economic Development staff continue to touch base with impacted business operators to identify opportunities for funding assistance through the State and Federal Government flood packages.

In the past week, 30 per cent more waste was disposed of at the landfill compared to a regular week.

“We have also emptied 20 skip bins since the clean-up started,” Cr Jurisevic said.

Council’s Community Development team made 250 welfare calls at the height of the flooding event and about 150 people have attended the 11 Recovery Pop-ups held this week.

“We have had 270 people register to be part of the Noosa Mud Army and they are certainly making a massive contribution to the clean-up,” Cr Stewart said.

Council has established a dedicated page on its website called - Community Recovery 2022 Floods. This provides vital information about the clean-up, where you can donate, health and wellbeing contacts and how to access Federal and State assistance.