Clean up ongoing in Queensland after Cyclone Kirrily

NSW EMERGENCY SERVICES TROPICAL CYCLONE KIRRILY DEPLOYMENT

Emergency service personnel from NSW SES, Fire and Rescue NSW and the NSW Rural Fire Service being deployed to Queensland to assist with Tropical Cyclone Kirrily. AAP Credit: NSW SES/PR IMAGE

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Queensland Premier Steven Miles has toured the Townsville area as the clean up continues following Cyclone Kirrily. Around 50,000 households in North Queensland are still without power. Parts of the state’s west are now expecting flash flooding in the aftermath of the cyclone


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TRANSCRIPT

The suburb of Kelso in the North Queensland city of Townsville survived the eye of the storm after Cyclone Kirrily tore through the area.

Residents like Nicky Storey now need to survive the recovery with no power and in severe tropical heat.

"It’s been rather hot without obviously being able to have the air conditioning on. We’re lucky enough to have the generator so we’ve got fans and fridges going. We’ve kind of prepared our kids that it could be up to seven days. A lot of people are talking about when they think its going to be. We're hoping its going to be sooner rather than later but we are prepared for it to be up to 7 days depending on what they're doing around the town."

Residents are cleaning up after strong winds hit the region along with rainfall totals between 100mm and 150mm, but minimal property damage was recorded.

But the areas without power are also those facing the biggest clean ups.

At the peak of the cyclone's crossing, around 66,000 customers experienced a power outage.

Over 10,000 homes now have power back, but about 29,000 more remain without power.

The people living in them, like resident Pavit Saini, still have no idea how long it will stay that way.

"We couldn’t sleep last night and the kids were crying so we left at 3:30 to go to our grocery store, because we have power there. So we stayed there until this morning. We just got back to check on if we got power back or not."

An extra 600 energy workers have been sent to Townsville, with their first priority to be restoring critical infrastructure with traffic lights, mobile networks and water pumping stations all offline.

Premier Steven Miles says energy workers are doing everything they can to get power back online.

"The Ergon workers are absolutely focused on getting the power back on for that critical water, wastewater as well as telecommunications infrastructure, that's their first priority. We'll keep providing updates through the day but they're quite confident especially given there are no power lines down. There's some broken arms, lots of lines down but no power poles down so that's what would really delay them."

Meanwhile Townsville’s kids have been coming up with creative ways to pass the time.

"What are you selling?"

"Apples are $2, limes are $2, chips are $2, coconuts are $3."

There’s still plenty of days of clean up ahead, but as for the weather Townsville is now in the clear.

Further inland, it’s a different story.

Severe weather and flood warnings are still active as ex-tropical cyclone Kirrily continues to cross the state.

Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology says some roads could become impassable because of floodwaters.

"Rainfall totals may reach 70 to 110 millimetres over a six hour period and that’s quite a short period to see quite a lot of rain come through so that could lead to flash flooding. That could cut off roads and access routes turning them muddy and impassable as well as causing other problems down the line."

Emergency Services have praised community preparedness as there has been no loss of life during, or following the weather event.

But people are still urged to remain cautious and alert.

In Charters Towers, 14 people including four children became trapped in floodwaters when they decided to take a drive and survey the damage.

All were airlifted to safety with no injuries.

Superintendent Chris Lawson from the state Police Service says its essential members of the public stay away from floodwaters.

"We're seeing significant amounts of rainfall occur around our region at the moment and we don't want people to be putting themselves at risk, because that then puts the people who have to save them at risk. I encourage people to stay away from the floodwaters and ensure their own safety."

The state and federal governments have confirmed the people hardest hit will soon have access to personal hardship assistance.

Residents of the Townsville and Burdekin shires will be able to access relief payments worth $180 per person, or up to $900 for a family of five.

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