Mayor praises cyclone preparations

Rockhampton Regional Council SES controller Eddie Cowie.

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DESPITE power outages, strong winds and heavy falls, Central Queensland was lucky to escape the worst of Cyclone Ului, Mayor Brad Carter said.

Shortly after visiting residents at Stanage Bay, the Rockhampton Regional Council Mayor, Cr Carter said we were prepared for the worst.

“I was very impressed with the way the state disaster control centre, the bureau, all emergency services and the disaster management groups handled cyclone preparations,” Cr Carter said.

Regardless of packing winds of 200kmh when Ului crossed the coast near Airlie Beach early Sunday, Rockhampton Regional Council SES controller Eddie Cowie said the Rockhampton district escaped relatively unscathed.

“We only had one tree down at Yeppoon and everyone in the region was very prepared for the worst,” Mr Cowie said.

Rockhampton received wind gusts of up to 54kmh just before 6am yesterday; while Yeppoon’s strongest winds reached speeds of 63kmh about 3.30pm on Saturday.

Late yesterday a team of local SES crews were on standby to help out with cyclone-battered Mackay and Whitsundays.

Meanwhile about 1000 Emu Park and Zilzie homes were without power after an outage 6pm Saturday.

Ergon Energy corporate communications manager Bob Pleash said power was progressively reinstated, however several hundred customers in the Tanby Point area remained in the dark overnight Saturday.

About 1700 customers in parts of Yeppoon along Farnborough Road including The Bluff, Ocean Circle, Meikleville Hill, Barlows Hill, Pacific Heights, Bangalee and Woodbury areas, lost power just before 6.30pm Saturday after a high voltage circuit breaker malfunctioned in Todd Avenue.

While several hundred were reinstated within an hour, the remainder were without power until 8.30pm.

In Stanage Bay, about 175km north of Rockhampton, wind gusts reached about 60kmh early Sunday.

Local Plumtree Store owner Bevan Haynes said he was grateful roads hadn’t been cut off and there was no serious damage.

“We’ve already had a lot of rain, so we’re grateful roads haven’t been cut off and no damage was done,” Mr Haynes said.