May 28 2009
Northern New South Wales Flood Damage
Spare a thought for the residents of northern New South Wales as well as southern Queensland as they are still left isolated and without homes. Towns such as Kempsey, Yamba, Bellingen and Grafton have all suffered with flood waters inundating the towns.
An estimated 21,000 people have been cut off by the water, their houses completely underwater. It has been announced that the flood damage has been estimated at $39 million so far. That’s an estimate that is sure to rise with further pain to be felt by landowners whose crops are all completely destroyed.
Insurance assors have already received 9,500 claims and the waters are yet to recede. When they do there will be another flood, this time of fresh insurance claims.
There are also unexpected stories of damage to the land such as macadamia farmer Lindsay Brian’s property near Bangalow, where the 100-kilometre per hour winds uprooted trees which had been in the ground for 28 years. An early estimate of the damage to the macadamia industry as a whole is $30 million in lost production.
