Volunteer teams here to ‘get dirty’

that healing process, which is why we’re doing what we’re doing.”

The major wash-up officially begins today.

It will run for at least two weeks and may go on for longer, but teams began small- effort er isolated efforts yesterday.

Strike Team Sector Alpha, made up of 16 QFES, SES and Rural Fire Service volunteers, was the first team on the ground yesterday.

Its members blitzed through Kokoda St, Idalia, sys- tematically knocking on doors and where residents were home, they ripped up carpet and linoleum flooring, got rid of furniture and hosed down walls and floors.

SES Townsville operations capability officer Ian Neale said the strike teams were there to assist devastated residents.

“With the strike team in there, (residents) know that there is help available and that’s what we’re here to do,” he said. PETER Larsen lived in Townsville decades ago, and now the Rural Fire Service volunteer is back as part of the mammoth postflood recovery effort.

More than 200 personnel from as far north as Port Douglas and south to Brisbane have travelled into the flood-ravaged city as part of the Strike Team washout effort.

The 73-year-old retiree is from Millstream, south of Cairns and has been with the RFS for eight years.

“I’m a retired person, and I wanted to do things for the community,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of friends in Townsville and my daughter lives here, so it’s a good excuse.

“That’s what we’re here for, to get dirty, pad around the mud and clear it all out.”

Mr Larsen said this was the worst flooding he had seen.

“I used to swim in Bluewater, years ago, and the kids used to swim there, and now it’s wiped out,” he said.

“But it won’t take much to get it all back up again.”