Big Narelle, Koji bill despite neither cyclone hitting Shire
Disaster costs
Cyclones Narelle and Koji may have ended up largely missing Douglas Shire earlier this year, but they still finished up costing the region more than $400,000 in disaster-management spending.
“Emergency procurement expenditure” by the Council this year has so far totalled more than $2m, with about $1.6m of that spent when Daintree River flooding in March put the ferry out of action.
About $380,000 has been attributed to costs involved with Tropical Cyclone Narelle in March, and about $43,000 went on Tropical Cyclone Koji, which took place in January.
Narelle was a strong, fast-moving cyclone which struck the coast near Coen as a Category 3, while Koji was a Category 2 system that formed in the Coral Sea and made landfall south of Townsville - but before each made the coast there was considerable uncertainty about exactly where they were going to hit.
This meant the DSC still had to commit money and resources to preparing for a possible strike and to warn people in the region of an impending emergency.
“These procurement activities enabled Council to respond promptly to emerging risks, restore community access, maintain critical infrastructure, and support the recovery and resilience of Douglas Shire communities following these severe weather events,” according to a report tabled in this week’s council meeting.
“Where possible, multiple quotations were sourced, and best practice procurement processes were followed.”
The report states that DSC staff expects most of the money to be reimbursed by the Federal and State Governments through disaster funding agreements.
Sources within the State Government, however, have told Newsport that the money spent on the ferry is not covered by disaster-funding arrangements, and that spending may have to be claimed on insurance instead.
Some of the services listed in the report where the money was spent includes bobcat and excavator hire, published warnings, traffic control, crane hire, helicopter hire and tree-lopping services.