With the threat of further flooding now dissipated, an enormous cleanup job remains in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Beaches in Northern NSW and South East Queensland have been severely eroded, and the extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure will test local government finances.
Power outages affected more than 300,000 homes and businesses across both states. Essential Energy said on Tuesday morning that there were ‘just over 7,600 homes and businesses without power, mainly in the Northern Rivers region’.
Houses and cars were also damaged, primarily by falling trees and floodwaters, but it’s clear that things could have been much worse for the region if the cyclone’s track had been slightly different.
Byron Bay recorded the highest wind gust, at 120km/h.
Warnings heeded
On Wednesday last week, the warning of a category 2 cyclone hitting the region was made well in advance, including fears that it would coincide with abnormally high tides on Friday.
Three evacuation centres were established in the Byron Shire by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ): Mullumbimby Ex-Services Club; Ocean Shores Country Club and the Cavanbah Centre (Ewingsdale Road, Byron Bay).
On Wednesday, SES advised Belongil residents to prepare for evacuation. On Thursday, Billinudgel and The Pocket residents were advised to evacuate before 9pm.
On Friday, as the storm’s impact grew close, power lines went down, impacting 43,000 north coast homes and businesses. SES directed Mullumbimby, South Golden Beach and Ocean Shores residents to evacuate before 8am Saturday. The M1 was closed from Ewingsdale to Chinderah, and schools also closed.
Council staff said power outages affected the majority of their sewer pump stations and some sewage treatment plants were running on generators. Mullumbimby residents were asked to be mindful of their water use, as the town’s water treatment plant was unable to process water ‘because of high turbidity in the water in Lavertys Gap weir’.
On Saturday, three Norfolk pines in Byron Bay were removed under Council staff instruction, owing to them being unstable. One tree was in Jonson Street and two were in Apex Park, near the Byron Bay Surf Club.
Another historic tree was lost to wind damage at the Rails.
Byron Shire Mayor Sarah Ndiaye told The Echo yesterday, ‘What was clear to me through this is that it’s our local services and service providers that were able to respond best and who know our community best, our local businesses that were open throughout, or quick to open, and there’s definitely some lessons to be learnt about that in emergency disaster response going forward’.
Dodged a bullet
‘We dodged a bullet in many ways, and when you see some of the surrounding rainfall levels and wind speeds, if they had hit us, and they could have, we would’ve seen a lot more damage and the flooding of course would’ve been a lot worse,’ said Mayor Ndiaye.
‘We still have people without power and there is likely to be some damage to infrastructure, but having those early warnings meant that people were more prepared both physically and mentally for the event. Council were also able to prepare by clearing drains, filling up the reservoir and ensuring our works sites were as prepared as possible.
‘The improved communications through levels of government, agencies, the Bureau of Meteorology, and between the states has been welcomed, as has the swift response.
‘One of the shining lights in this has been our community resilience networks (CRNs), CHUBs and THUBS. These are models that need to be expanded and better resourced going forward,’ said Cr Ndiaye.
You can see more photos of the local Tropical Cyclone Alfred experience here.
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