Over the last few days you may have noticed some news articles about various companies and local government bodies to coincide with the six month anniversary of Cyclone Yasi. They seem to be full of self-congratulatory quotes about their achievements since the night of the 2nd/3rd of February. I’m sure some have been hard at work but what is the reality on the ground for ordinary people? It’s not possible for me to find out why things are still such a mess in these individual cases but talk to anyone that is still waiting for work to commence on their homes and you’ll get the same answers every time: slow insurance companies, unreliable assessors and over-priced builders. And remember this: not every damaged house was lucky enough to get a tarp on the roof. There are many that look relatively Ok from the outside but have completely ruined interiors due to the rain.
I drove round a small part of Tully over the last two days and this is what I saw. I’ll split the photos over two pages so they load more quickly:
Lastly, a small town such as Tully faces a massive task in rebuilding after a natural disaster of the scale of Cyclone Yasi. Something that helps is keeping local businesses going. Two local businesses that should have thrived after Yasi are the local glass shop and timber yard. This is what they look like after six months:
Timber yard
Tully Glass