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.
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