As cyclone Ita finally runs out of steam after wreaking havoc along Queensland’s coast, farmers are emerging as her biggest victim.
The preliminary damage bill has been estimated at $1bn since the category four storm hit the Queensland coast near Cooktown in far north Queensland on Friday.
It then hugged almost 1,000km of coastline and unleashed heavy winds, dumping torrential rain as far south as Mackay. The Bureau of Meteorology on Monday afternoon downgraded Ita from a category one system to a tropical low predicted to head further out to sea.
While there was no loss of life or serious injury, cyclone Ita has flattened canefields, ruined banana crops, cut the state’s main highway and left a mammoth cleanup task in her wake.
The state’s premier, Campbell Newman, said he did not want to downplay the cyclone’s impact.
“I really hate the whole idea of people saying we’ve dodged something, because we haven’t,” he said in Ingham, which had been cut off by flooding. “There are impacts on people’s farms, on their businesses, on their homes, on livelihoods and we’ve all got to work together to help these people out.”
Government assistance for affected farmers is likely to be announced in coming days.
A Bowen farmer, Carl Walker, said it wasn’t only the town’s tomato industry that was left reeling. “We’ve got beans, corn, capsicums, cucumbers, melons – all those things get affected,” he said.
The state’s local government minister, David Crisafulli, said it was “gut-wrenching” to see flattened canefields and ruined banana crops as he inspected damage along the coast. “In this part of the world, it’s the economy – the heartbeat,” he said. The damage is expected to be felt in consumers’ hip pockets as demand for fruit and vegetables begins to outstrip supply and pushes up prices.
A third-generation Ingham cane farmer, Steve Guazzo, said the storm had wiped out 10% of his 250-hectare farm just two months out from harvest time.
About 90% of the Ingham region’s income is linked to sugar cane. “Any losses we have in the sugar industry in the Herbert has a flow-on effect throughout the community,” said Guazzo, who is also vice-president of Canegrowers Australia. Newman said power had been restored for 50% of residents in most affected areas, but the cleanup would continue for some time.
Residents in rural and remote areas would have to wait longer for services to be restored, he said.
On Monday afternoon the Bureau of Meteorology finally renamed the storm ex-tropical cyclone Ita, with tracking maps showing it moving away from the Queensland coast as a tropical low.
Source: The Guardian