Getting ready in line of danger

CARDWELL residents treated yesterday as business as usual with the town’s supermarket reporting brisk trading during the day, but no panic buying.

In an area where Cyclone Yasi did its worst damage in 2011, residents were taking precautions. The streets were filled with the sounds of chainsaws as trees were trimmed.

Woolworths at Ingham was busier than usual, but once again retailers said there was no evidence of people rushing in to stock up on bulk orders of bread, milk and other necessities.

At Carruchan in the Kennedy Valley near Cardwell a man in his 50s was taken to the Ingham District Hospital suffering a shoulder injury he received when cutting down a large gum tree with a chain saw. A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesperson said the man’s shoulder was hurt when it was struck by the tree when it fell.

Banana farmer David Singh was taking precautions, but was waiting for todayto see if he would start to ‘nurse sucker’, the term banana growers use to describe the practice of cutting down a mature tree in order to save its sucker.

“Any wind over 60km/h can knock down mature banana trees. If you nurse sucker (cut down the big trees) and you get hit with the cyclone you will be back in production three to four months earlier than if you let the trees be blown down,” he said.

“But, at the same time, if you cut them down and you don’t get a cyclone you are going to still be behind. It’s a gamble whatever you do.”

Mr Singh lost his entire crop in Cyclone Yasi.

“It was a production loss of $2 million and then there was the infrastructure damage as well,” he said.

“We’ll do what we can now and then see what happens.”

Ingham State Emergency Service controller Rodger Bow said all preparations were being made.

“We are now at Lean Forward which is the first phase of our disaster preparations,” he said.

He said sand bags had been sent to Halifax and more were being sent to Ingham.

Mr Bow said he would prefer that the cyclone came in quickly rather than spend a long time circling out at sea, building in intensity.

Cardwell SES controller Peter Ottone said sand and bags were available and that people could “come and help themselves”.

“We just say ‘be prepared’. With the water table so high there could be flash flooding in some areas if there is a lot more rain,” he said.