The damage bill left behind by Cyclone Debbie is expected to run into the billions, Queensland’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says.
One week after the category-four storm crossed the Queensland coast, the clean-up has only just begun for many communities throughout Queensland and northern NSW. At least five people have died as a result of the flooding that followed the cyclone.
Debbie dumped more than a metre of rain on parts of Queensland and the huge volume of water is still slowly spilling down river systems, with Rockhampton next in the firing line. The Fitzroy river is expected to peak at around 9m on Wednesday morning. The figure is revised down from the earlier predicted peak of 9.4m, which would have been the city's worst flooding since 1954.
Up and down the east coast of Australia, communities have been returning to thick mud, piles of debris and ruined property. Raw sewage, rats and snakes are exacerbating the situation.
Military and emergency personnel continued to work to restore essential services such as water and electricity in affected towns, where hundreds of homes have been deemed uninhabitable.
Lismore’s Mayor Isaac Smith told AAP the northern NSW town was “like a war zone”.
Palaszczuk said the impact on infrastructure such as bridges and roads has been huge.
“This has had a huge impact right across this state, we’ve got roads down, we’ve got bridges down, we’ve got families that have lost everything,” she told Fairfax.