FORGOTTEN LAND TWEED
Roads and infrastructure in ruins months after devastating cyclone
FOUR months after monsoonal rains associated with Cyclone Debbie devastated northern NSW the region still faces an uphill battle to get back on its feet.
Roads still need rebuilding, businesses are reportedly considering relocating and politicians are warning locals they will have to severely tighten their belt in months and years to come to pay for the mounting infrastructure repair bill.
Meanwhile, the NSW Government has vowed to go in to bat for locals whose insurance claims were allegedly wrongly knocked back.
Tweed Shire Council Deputy Mayor Chris Cherry said despite a pledge from both state and federal Governments to rebuild infrastructure decimated in the region as a result of the cyclone earlier this year, the council would have to produce $3–4 million to permanently repair roads.
“After the flood event earlier this year, we really just don’t have spare funds,” she said. “We’re only about a third of the way through our road rebuilding ... and we’ve got a lot of infrastructure that needs repairs.
“We don’t have our final financials yet about what they are and aren’t going to fund. It looks like there’s quite a high likelihood of having quite a big shortfall in funding.”
Councillor Cherry said it was unclear which programs would face the chopping block until the budget reviews in September or December.
“I think council itself will have to find ... in the order of around $3-4 million so that’s the kind of money that we haven’t budgeted for ... we need to find (the money) in other programs and things like that,” she said.
“Anything that’s not completely necessary at the moment is going to need to take a back seat. It was an event like we’ve never seen before so there was just so much damage to roads.”
Almost all roads were made usable again but permanent upgrades were “an ongoing job”.
A spokesman for the office of the NSW Small Business Commissioner said the department was working with about 100 business in the region that had grievances with insurance companies after making claims related to Cyclone Debbie.
“The Office of the NSW Small Business Commissioner has been contacted by around 100 businesses seeking help after claim disputes with insurance companies and is preparing a bulk submission to the Commonwealth Financial Ombudsman (FOS) who has a designated team to review the matters as a priority,” he said.
So dire is the issue regarding insurance claims that the council recently passed a resolution to write to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian about the “apparent lack of support by the various insurance companies ... in light of her statement during her post-flood visit that the insurance companies would be answerable to her if they did not do the right thing by our community”,
Councillor Warren Polglase said another issue facing the council was the unforeseen discovery of “issues” with local infrastructure.
Councillor Pryce Allsop, who also runs a hardware store in Murwillumbah, said he was knocked back for a $160,000 insurance claim he made after Cyclone Debbie to repair damage to his shop.
But Cr Allsop said his claim was a “drop in the ocean” in comparison to some other businesses in the region.
“We’re still a dog’s breakfast,” he said.
“I rang the small business commission and they advised me to go into dispute.
“We were also hit with a 70m-long piece of earth that floated down the river.”
Condong Public School principal Brendan Quinn said Cyclone Debbie had taken a heavy toll on his tight-knit school of only 52 students.
Mr Quinn said after his school was wrecked, teachers and students moved into an abandoned school at South Murwillumbah.
“The devastation has been quite catastrophic,” he said.
“We had a number of families whose homes were destroyed by the flood. We had a number of staff who lost their homes, cars and the majority of their belongings.”
WE’RE ONLY ABOUT A THIRD OF THE WAY THROUGH OUR ROAD REBUILDING DEPUTY MAYOR CHRIS CHERRY