FollowupID: 479946 Submitted:
Saturday, Feb 03, 2007 at 08:37
Member - Andrew (QLD) posted:
Mate, i have no sympathy for the banana industry despite all the false reports thrown around in the media.
Whilst i arrived in
Innisfail to assist with the response/recovery effort early, there appeared to be widespread destruction of the banana crops amongst others with all of the trees snapped in halve and facing west on the southern side of
Innisfail and all others facing east on the northern side of
Innisfail.......powerful sight. However i arrived back there 4 weeks later and every banana plant had 5 or so large leaves on it.
Someone described the plant as a weed as to how it just re-establishes. Anyway, went through the area 3 months later and i would defy anyone to recognise if the banana trees had been in a cyclone. Whilst the start of one crop may have been lost, the crop recovered quickly (8 months later and the prices were back to normal levels).
I feel more sorry for people who lost their homes and/or jobs as i believe the banana industry never told the whole story behind how well the industry can recover.
ex El'Arish.......who would have known ;-)
Those passengers stranded at Proserpine airport were well looked after, even if as you stated they hadn't really taken a hit :-) The Whitsunday Council, SES, Police, Firies and Ambos all know each other in Prossy and did more than most to assist these people. Our SES guys spent the day helping out people in need, and even assisted the staff from the other Emergency Services to access their work via floodboat to relieve staff. Whilst the media communicates one facet of the minor flooding, the true story lies in the community assistance given by the township to these "tourists". It's what i like about the Whitsunday's Emergency Services :-)
Go south Rain....
Andrew
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