Idyllic Islands in ruin after ex-Cyclone Alfred devastated southeast Queensland

ABC NEWS (Australia)

They were the first to bear the brunt of tropical cyclone Alfred. Almost five days on, the clean-up continues on the Moreton Bay islands with power and internet still being restored.

Transcript

00:00The idyllic beaches of North Stradbroke Island carved away, a lingering impact of tropical

00:08cyclone Alfred.

00:12Point Lookout was the hardest hit by big swells and wild wind.

00:17Truckloads of fallen trees and debris are still being removed.

00:23Melanie Lawler has 60 holiday rentals on the island.

00:27She's been fixing up the properties to get tourists back.

00:31We've actually got three new bookings for this weekend, which I thought was amazing.

00:34So come to Straddy, we'd love to see you.

00:36Some holidaymakers who rescheduled their trips returned to the island today.

00:41Yeah, I'm just glad the sun's shining.

00:43The area's main grocer is up and running.

00:48Power has just returned after being out for days.

00:52It's still without internet, meaning it's cash only.

00:56Since the eye passed, power went out and then all hell just broke loose.

01:00I think we lost mobile communications the following morning and still haven't had it

01:03since then and just no update about when it's happening.

01:06Thousands of dollars of produce was lost.

01:10You know, loss of trade as well.

01:11By the time we come out of this, we're talking about, you know, we're hundreds of thousands

01:15of dollars in the red.

01:16The cleanup efforts are in full swing here on North Stradbroke Island, with life almost

01:22back to normal.

01:23Power and essential services are being restored, but other Southern Bay Island residents are

01:29still in the dark.

01:30It's a bit of a strain on the whole family actually, you know, everyone's stressed out,

01:35the kids are bored.

01:36It's up and down each day.

01:38The mayor says the Bay Islands haven't been forgotten.

01:41I know island residents have indicated they've been feeling left out.

01:45We've been working really hard to get those services back on for them.

01:48She expects there'll be lessons around outages to phone and internet services.

01:54And we really need more investment in our local area to ensure that when we go through

01:57things like this, we still maintain as best we can the connectivity with our residents

02:02because without that, we don't know what's going on.

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