GG continues disaster tour in North Qld

A day after comforting victims of the Victorian bushfires, Governor-General Quentin
Bryce has flown to north Queensland to do the same for flood victims.

Ms Bryce, flying in an army Blackhawk helicopter, surveyed major flood damage around
Ingham, north of Townsville, then met with those now cleaning up after the deluge.
While much of the water has subsided from its record levels of a week ago, the slow
recovery for flood victims and the clean-up effort around town were continuing.
Up to 3,000 houses were damaged by floods in Ingham plus hundreds more in outlying
areas.
Ms Bryce, and her husband Michael Bryce, heard from a number of locals as she
visited them while they were cleaning their homes.
Conroy Street resident Dawn Alloway waved a photograph of her washing machine at Ms
Bryce as the two discussed the flood and the strain on volunteers, including her own
daughter, who had manned the shire council call centre's phones during the flood.
"I was talking to some people at the call centre this morning and one of them, she
just burst into tears and said how hard it had been taking calls from people who
were frightened, screaming and anxious," Ms Bryce said.
As Mrs Alloway sifted through an photo album looking for pictures of possessions for
her insurance claim, she explained to Ms Bryce the floodwaters last week had risen
to within three steps of their first floor-level front door.
Much like Conroy Street, other streets in Ingham were littered with piles of
furniture and other possessions which were water damaged and now rubbish.
Earlier, Ms Bryce visited the disaster control centre in the middle of town where
she was briefed by the mayor of Hinchinbrook, State Emergency Service personnel and
other local mayors in the region in a phone hook-up.
Hinchinbrook Shire Mayor Pino Giandomenico said the floods were the worst to hit the
shire since 1977 and could leave cane farmers with little, if anything, to harvest
in July.
"Our sugar industry has copped a fair hammering because, even though it's still
green out there, when you fly over it, the water in the paddocks now, with the heat,
will boil and will actually kill the cane, then the cane has to start regrowing all
over again," Mr Giandomenico said.
Mr Giandomenico said about 200 people had to leave their homes with most going to
friends or relatives until the waters from the Herbert River subsided.
He said Ingham did not have the dengue fever problem which had surfaced in
Townsville but the town was being disinfected as a precaution.
"We're cleaning it all up, we're disinfecting the whole town, we're making sure that
the town is back to its original glamour and then we start doing all the major
repair works to all the roads and bridges and infrastructure," Mr Giandomenico said.
Ms Bryce will visit two farms in the region on Saturday before returning to Victoria
for a church service in Whittlesea on Sunday.