March 11, 2015
If the guys and gals in the photo above look a bit the worse for wear, they have a good excuse … they’ve just been through the aftermath of a Category 5 cyclone.
Four volunteers from the South Burnett Southern SES unit returned on Tuesday after helping with the clean-up after Cyclone Marcia.
The team was deployed in the Yeppoon area – including the small town of Byfield which took the brunt of the cyclone as it crossed the coast – and at Rockhampton.
They spent five days away from home, clearing fallen trees and other debris, and tarping roofs.
“It was mainly cleaning up stuff,” Nanango volunteer Christine White said.
“Getting it off the houses and helping to make them more habitable.”
The team started at 8:00am each day and worked through until 4:00pm.
They slept at night in large tents provided for all the volunteer workers.
Christine said their efforts had been much appreciated by the local residents.
“Everyone kept on coming up and saying ‘thank you, thank you’,” she said.
The team was assigned 400 jobs, and amazingly, they managed to get through them all.
Volunteer Amanda Johnson said the damage caused in the region was incredible – including a pine forest where the trees had all been bent over.
The volunteers were treated to breakfast by the local Mayor at Rockhampton on their last morning before heading back home.
