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.