Multi-million dollar disasters!
| 29 May 2017 (amended: 29 May 2017) |
Recovering from the infamous September 2016 storm and subsequent December storms has resulted in an expenditure of over $2 million for Wakefield Regional Council.
While the communities continue to recover from the storm and flood events, Council is also counting the cost. Calculations from Council’s recent budget review have highlighted the true financial impact from the one-in-50-year storm in September 2016. Approximately 30% of the annual rate income has been consumed by disaster recovery costs.
While the communities continue to count the financial and personal impacts of the disaster, Councillors are grappling with how to recover the unexpected costs which were understandably not factored into the budget or long term financial plan.
Repairing local community infrastructure is still ongoing due to the drawn-out process of claiming disaster recovery funding and insurances. To be eligible to claim, Council is unable to conduct the repairs in-house and must adhere to specific lengthy processes when arranging contracted repairs.
CEO Jason Kuchel said, “Not only has there been significant financial impact, the community have also felt the affect.”
“The shelter at Apex Park in Balaklava is a good example. A prime facility, used by many local residents, was destroyed as a result of the storm over 8 months ago. Regular users of the Lions Walking Trail in Balaklava have also been affected by the temporary closure due to large scale scouring. Both of these are yet to be fixed as we are required to wait until the insurance claims are accepted before we can proceed.”
Mr Kuchel said “The State Government Disaster Recovery Fund is expected to fund around $430,000, leaving Council to cover the remainder of the costs, estimated at $1.83 million, to repair damaged infrastructure and to mitigate future flooding.”
Flood mitigation works will comprise of:
- Wakefield River flood levy bank from Bowmans to Port Wakefield - Moody Estate flood levy bankIn addition, Council will consider installing monitors to observe water level rises in the Wakefield and Light Rivers.