New South Wales councils are recuperating from the weekend’s storms and counting the cost of damage done to their local areas.
Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery paid tribute to the volunteers and staff who worked to keep the region safe over the weekend.
“Hundreds of emergency services personnel along with agencies including Wollongong City Council worked tirelessly to keep our residents safe during this extraordinary weather event that pummelled the east coast,” said Mayor Bradbery.
An Emergency Operations Centre was set up in Council’s administration building to respond to the situation.
In addition to regularly scheduled staff, Wollongong City Council deployed a team of around 50 staff members to assist across the region.
The Council distributed 500 sandbags overnight on Friday and hundreds more in the following days.
Tweed Shire Council has estimated the cost of the weekend’s storms to be around $300,000, and this is likely to increase.
Tweed General Manager, Troy Green, said the Council is working to fix the damage.
“There’s always some damage to roads and other infrastructure from events such as this but I’d like to reassure the public that we’ll be working through what needs to be fixed and then scheduling repairs, as time and money allows,” said Mr Green.
“We’ll also be applying for whatever government assistance may be available to recover some of the costs.”
Mayor of Randwick City Council, Noel D’Souza, said his area was also hit hard and that council response teams are assessing damage ahead of the clean-up effort.
“Safety for our residents is paramount,” said the mayor, “We urge all residents to remain patient while we try to gauge the extent of the damage and to begin the clean-up process which at this stage may take several weeks”
Mayor D’Souza cautioned residents to be wary of potential further dangerous weather.
“People should also be warned that there may still be more damage to come with high tides expected today as a result of the remnants of the storm. It is advised to stay away from any water-based activities until the waves subside.”
