Communities in WA’s Great Southern getting disaster assistance

Disaster assistance has been extended to help communities in Western Australia’s Great Southern region recover from damage caused by heavy rain and severe flooding.

Storms in
early August dumped two months of rain in two days in the area, with the City of
Albany and the Shire of Denmark both experiencing significant damage to their
respective road networks.

Assistance
will be provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster
Recovery Funding Arrangements.

WA Minister
for Emergency Services Francis Logan said: “The severe weather event broke a
number of rainfall records across the Great Southern, underlining the strain on
the region’s infrastructure.

“Bremer Bay
broke its 90-year daily rainfall record, while King River received its highest ever
daily rainfall since records began,” he said.

Early
reports indicate at least 50 roads in the local area sustained varying degrees
of damage, meaning the total repair bill could reach into the millions of dollars.