Natural disaster assistance activated for Cairns, Cardwell and Johnstone

The Queensland Government has activated assistance for three local government areas in the State’s far north in the wake of heavy rainfall and flash flooding yesterday.

Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said he had approved the recommendation to activate the joint State and Commonwealth-funded Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) for Cairns, Cardwell and Johnstone local government.

“There were reports of more than 700mm of rain at Silkwood yesterday. Eleven houses and six businesses were affected by flash flooding yesterday,” Mr Roberts said.

“About 50 State Emergency Service volunteers were called on to carry-out flood and storm operations.”

“So far this year, flood assistance has been activated in 83 local government areas. Cairns, Cardwell and Johnstone are among 40 local government areas where NDRRA has been activated twice this year.”

NDRRA was activated for Cairns, Cardwell and Johnstone local government areas on 15 January in response to damage reported from flooding associated with that monsoonal low last month.

The assistance in these local government areas can provide:

- personal hardship assistance;

- recovery of costs for restoring public assets, such as roads, and for costs of local councils' extraordinary disaster management;

- assistance for sporting clubs and other non-profit organisations who cannot provide for their own recovery to restore assets to pre-disaster standard;

- concessional loans for primary producers and small businesses affected by flooding; and

- freight subsidies for producers;

Personal hardship assistance to individuals and families, and assistance for non-profit organisations is administered by the Department of Communities. The Department of Communities can be contacted on 1800 440 074.

Concessional loans for producers and small businesses should contact QRAA (Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority) on 1800 623 946.

To apply for freight subsidies, producers should contact the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) on 13 25 23 or their local DPI&F inspector.

3 March 2008

Media contact: Kirby Anderson 0418 197 350