The thousands who lost their homes and livelihoods in the cyclone that slammed into Australia's northeast coast earlier this week were promised hundreds of millions of dollars in government aid to help rebuild their houses and recover their jobs yesterday.
"A country like Australia can afford to be fair and generous and to help people get back on their feet," Prime Minister John Howard said, announcing an open-ended relief package for the estimated 7,000 whose houses lost roofs and walls in Monday's tempest.
"This is a natural disaster where Australians should respond as a team," the prime minister said in Innisfail, the far-north Queensland town that bore the full fury of maximum category-five Cyclone Larry.
Innisfail was blasted by wind gusts of up to 300kph. A third of the houses lost roofs and the 8,000 residents were urged to leave until water, power and sewerage services could be restored.
Businesses sideswiped by Queensland's worst-ever cyclone will receive tax-free grants of A$10,000 (US$7,160) and farmers whose sugar-cane fields and banana plantations were flattened in the onslaught will get unemployment benefit for the next six months.
"These measures I announce today will take effect as soon as it is humanly possible to put them into effect," Howard said.
No one was killed by the tropical cyclone and no one seriously injured, but damage to buildings and crops was estimated at up to A$1 billion.
More than 400 soldiers and thousands of emergency services volunteers were struggling to restore essential services to the blighted coastal town.
Howard visited a banana plantation outside Innisfail where the entire crop was on the ground.
"My house and my family are fine but my living is totally destroyed," farmer Martin Buchanan told the prime minister.
Officials estimated bananas worth A$300 million and sugar cane worth A$200 million has been lost.
Ian Ballantyne, general manager of farmers' group Canegrowers, said: "We have to face the cold hard facts. This is going to wipe some growers out."
Most of Australia's 275,000 tonne banana crop is grown around Innisfail. Banana prices in supermarkets have already doubled.
Cyclone Larry was more powerful than Katrina, the hurricane that killed more than 1,000 people and wrecked New Orleans last August.
Tom Hardy, a meteorologist with the Australian Maritime College, said it was the specter of Katrina-style devastation that prompted residents to heed warnings and obey evacuation notices.
The cyclone knocked out power to 140,000 homes and businesses, but by Wednesday only 35,000 were without power. Electrical power company Ergon Energy said in a statement that it could be more than a week before homes in the worst-hit areas had their lights back on.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
RSS