Far too slow

The decision to bring in the army should have been made more than a week ago

HELP is finally on the way for Gold Coasters who are still struggling to get by after the devastation of the Christmas storm. Gold Coast-based Senator Murray Watt announced on Tuesday that 50 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel had been called up to provide relief from Thursday for at least a week.

The ADF team will also bring heavy trucks, help clear debris and getting the city back on its feet after the deadly storms.

The state and federal governments also announced a small business package which will no-doubt be mana from heaven for those affected by the storm and its aftermath.

To be clear, these twin announcements are welcome and a critical step forward.

However, they are a week too late.

And it appeared to take the latest torrential rain to force the hand of authorities to act.

The Gold Coast Hinterland and much of the city’s north were hammed by these storms.

Many houses remain uninhabitable and others will have to be demolished entirely.

Residents of Mt Tamborine, Guanaba and other Hinterland locations remain without power more than a week later and without any indication when they will get it back.

The rural area’s power grid was largely destroyed by the storms and these residents are understandably feeling desperate.

Questions must be asked why, given the immediately obvious state of play, why the ADF was not called in immediately.

Nobody is disputing the sterling job that both council workers, Energex teams, nor the SES have done.

Many of these people were fresh from helping North Queensland residents devastated by Cyclone Jasper but answered the call and spent their festive seasons helping their neighbours.

To restore power to so much of the city given the struggling conditions has been immense.

But they deserved to be backed up straight away through the toughest days of the crisis.

There is no playbook for how to deal with disaster, especially so many hitting at once.

But we deserved better.

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