Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson says a mini tornado took down large trees and powerlines and damaged a number of buildings on the weekend

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Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson says a mini tornado took down large trees and powerlines and damaged a number of buildings on the weekend · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Some incredible vision coming out of Central Australia. Over the weekend,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a storm cell tour through parts of Alice Springs, bringing
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: down trees and power lines with it.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Areas including Lara.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Pinta, Ara, Lewin Gillen and the Gap were among those impacted.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: And joining us on the line to tell us a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: bit more about what happened is the mayor of Alice,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Matt Patterson.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Matt, Good morning mate, what happened
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: over the weekend with this storm.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: I've never been involved in a cyclone, Katie, but I
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: reckon it's what they're describing it as a mini tornado.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: It went for about three minutes that it was the
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: scariest three minutes of my life. It was unbelievable. So
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: I reckon, We've lost about ten thousand trees, big ones,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: trees on houses, roofs ripped off. I'm sure you've seen
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: the pictures of your Perinia, but yeah, unit complex roofs
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: and gone.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: So unbelievable.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds that way, and it sounds like it
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: was just a few minutes of absolute chaos.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, chaos. It was just so destructive and it was
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: only in certain parts of the town. So some other
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: parts in Alice, we didn't even get to drop a rain.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Pretty unbelievable. We had a storm two weeks ago, but
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: storm on Saturday, and that makes that one look tiny.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: So it's yeah, cleaning up. The council and emergency services
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: worked till midnight on Saturday and then all day yesterday
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: cleaning it up. So they're going through his own plan now.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: And how's that clean up process going. Is everything sort
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of done or is there still quite a bit of
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: work to go because it sounds like there was a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: lot of damage in terms of structural damage.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Lots of structural damage. I'll be some houses that'll have
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: to be knocked down, but I can't imagine we'd get
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: all the trees off for probably, you know, four to
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: six weeks, so not because we're resourced in just because
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: there's so many of them, Katie, Yeah, you've seen the photos.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: It's unbelievable.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And Matt's talk us through because I know, you know,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: when we've had cyclones up here on the top end
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: at different times, when those trees go down on certain
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: power lines, it can take an incredibly long period of
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: time for some of those power lines to be fixed.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: How's it going from that perspective.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: So on Saturday there was four thousand houses without power.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: They got that down to thirteen hundred yesterday, and I
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: think it's only about forty this morning. But a lot
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: of them are not power water issue. Now it's the
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: private owners because they need electricians in because of the
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: mains coming into their house, which belongs to the owner,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: not power and water. So yeah, there's only a few
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: houses now without power.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, So I'm not.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Thinking day, which is quite nice. Yeah, you know, people
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: have lost their groceries and all those sort of things.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: So I put out, I mean, this is when our springs,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: you know, the community spirit comes out. I'd give a
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: few welfare check chefs own residents and they said to me, Matt,
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: this tree had fallen down. And then I looked around
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: and six people were here with chainsaws that I've never
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: met before cutting it out. And on the radio station
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: in Als, I put out that some people need some
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: food and money because they can't afford any They lost
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: it all in and my phone blew up and our
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: lady's you know, had a donation to her. So that's
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: the part of our springs that we love and that's
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: why people live here, and so it's good to see.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And you know what, it's probably even though it's been
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: such a tough time going through that storm and you've
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: had such a tough time around crime, it's probably incredible
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: to see the way that the community is now banding
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: together to help each other out.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Absolutely incredible. Yeah, and you know, warms my heart yesterday
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: when I seen it, and so, as you said, it's
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: a tough couple of weeks and months, but you know,
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: the community really did come together yesterday and you can
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: see them now out in the streets, and yeah, it
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: is fantastic to see. And that's what's so special about
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Olie Springs.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Matt tell Us, do you have any idea how many
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: homes were damaged.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Severely damaged? I would say probably a dozen, but a
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: lot of people have lost carports and you know, backyards
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: and verannas and those sort of things. But you know,
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: the severe ones as big gums basically chopped chopped the
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: house in half. So I continue some photos, Kadie. Yeah,
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: unbelievably not one person was injured.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, thank good, I believe it. Yeah, thank good.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: And we were working with the Northern Territory government. They
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: are in town. So I took the Chief Minister out
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: and some cabinet members yesterday so they can you know,
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: they could see the damage and really appreciate the bounce
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: back that we're going to need. So they're going to
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: assist that they can, which is also going to greatly
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: appreciate it.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, Matte, talk us through as well.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: You know, I guess when things like this happen, everybody
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: kind of takes a step back and goes, well, were
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: we warned early enough?
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Did the bureau send out a warning? And was it
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: early enough? Or was there not much more you could
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: really do?
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: No, there was no warning. It just happened. It was
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: just it was incredible. So it just come through town
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: and as I said, sort of ripped counterpart. But it
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: happened with the click of a finger, Okatie, And I
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: don't know what Yeah, what more could have been done?
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: To be honest?
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, was there much other sort of bad weather that
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: followed mash or was that it? I know, like you said,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, there was that storm, but
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: nowhere near as severe as this one.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: No, we've had a little bit of rain enough something
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: like this. I calling this a super cell. It was unbelievable.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: But yeah, it was. When I say it was scariest
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: three minutes of my life. It was like there's a
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: jet plane on the roof. It's unbelievable.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: And I know, like you've got little ones. I know
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: there's plenty of kids in Alice Springs. They must have
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: been frightened.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, luckily enough, I just dropt my kids to
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: my mum's and she's on the other side of town,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: and I rang on and said to mckin'saka after the storm,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: and she had no idea what I was talking about.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: So how incredible.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: It's incredible that half the town was struck in the
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: way that it was, and then other areas just didn't
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: even didn't even know about it.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm so thankful that the other half didn't
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: get hit, because this would be a massive clean up
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: if we were dealing with the whole town. This is
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: half the town that is. It's unbelievable. Probably ten thousand
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: trees down, Katie, and big big ones as well.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: So Matt, just talk us through with those ten thousand trees.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: You know how difficult a process is it going to be?
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: And how long does the accountsil anticipate it's going to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: take before you can get all of those cleaned up.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: I'll look probably I think the early early numbers is
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: about four to six weeks to get them picked up.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: But you know, we'll be reaching out to other people,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: probably from Darwen and Catherine to try to come down
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: and help. Now, people are being quite good taking up
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: taking it out to the regional waste management facility down here.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: It is free green waste and we do multure but
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: with the biggest stuff we'll cut that up into firewood.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: But some people just have to leave it on their
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: verge because they don't have access to a trailer or
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: a up and so we'll have to get to those eventually.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: But yeah, probably four to six weeks at this stage
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: based on current resourcing. Obviously, for we get more resources
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: down here, it'll be a much quicker process.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: And any idea of what the cost is going to be,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I guess it's still such early days.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't want to think about that at this stage.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Hopefully it's the clear of disaster, so the people can
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: help out financially under governments can help out financially as well.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I understand that you bring your school. It had
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: its roof peeled off. How are they going, do you know?
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And are the kids able to go today?
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: No? I don't think that they will be there this week,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: at least the earliest. I spoke to Gavin, the principal, yesterday,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: and he just got elected the council on Friday, so
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: he's got a baptism on fire. But yeah, I think
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: that they're looking at alternates after this week. Gavin's probably
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: a better person to speak about that one.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: We'll have a chat to it.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: That was hugely damaged as well.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, goodness may it sounds like it was absolute chaos.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Alice Spring, It's been a tough time for you guys.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: You know, like we mentioned earlier, there's been really tough
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: going with crime. Then to have this storm cell, this
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: superstorm cell hit the town. But as you've said, and
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I always think that this is the wonderful thing about
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, is it when you go through these
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: hard times you then see that real territory spirit shine through.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, I don't know why anyone would want to
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: be the mayor. Kady. Let me tell you about No.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: As I said, my heart was warm yesterday when I
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: just said, Alice Springs come together and you know it's
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: what this community, that community spirit, it's built on our springs.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: So it was fantastic.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Well, Matt Patterson, the mayor of Alice Springs, great to speak.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: With you this morning.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I hope that you know that that clean up process
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and everything goes pretty smoothly. I'm sure that if there
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: is assistance required from from Darwin, we'd be more than
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: happy to send.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: It down mate. We appreciate your time.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Please do I'll send you through some photos.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you. That'd be wonderful