NSW: Mammoth effort needed to repair damage in Armidale

AAP General News (Australia)
12-22-2006
NSW: Mammoth effort needed to repair damage in Armidale

By Paul Carter

SYDNEY, Dec 22 AAP - A major effort will be needed to repair about 1,000 homes and
other property damaged in a freak hailstorm that lashed the northern NSW city of Armidale,
local authorities say.

A state of emergency has been declared for the city following the storm that hammered
its eastern quarter for about 20 minutes yesterday afternoon.

The storm left a trail of destruction in its wake, with homes unroofed, windows smashed,
cars damaged, trees stripped of foliage and glass from broken windows strewn about the
streets.

Armidale Lord Mayor Peter Ducat said today the sheer weight of the hail had damaged
1,000 homes and collapsed the roof of a large agricultural exhibition centre.

Some of the homes suffered only minor damage such as wet carpets and broken windows,
not requiring a State Emergency Service (SES) call-out.

But the SES received about 195 calls for assistance to repair homes and more than 100
SES volunteers, Rural Fire Service volunteers, police and council staff worked through
the night to help residents.

Emergency Services Minister David Campbell said in a statement it appeared only about
190 homes had been damaged by hail and high winds.

But Mr Ducat said the damage, in varying degrees, was much more widespread.

He said at the local racecourse, water from the melting hail had collapsed ceilings
and ruined carpets and computers, throwing doubt over the city's Australia Day race meeting.

Any house with a flat roof, or a box gutter, was flooded, drenching carpets and Christmas
presents, Mr Ducat said.

"People I've spoken to have had water damage to the inside of their homes, and broken
windows, but the external clean-up is going to be as big a problem as anything," Mr Ducat
said.

Armidale Dumaresq Shire general manager Shane Burns welcomed the emergency declaration,
saying the clean-up would require a "mammoth effort".

"If the declaration was not made, the cost to the community would be significant, and
to our ratepayers, but also those people who were uninsured would be hit fairly hard as
well," Mr Burns said.

"What it enables us to do is to go through with the confidence of having that funding
there, and the resources to help the people through this very emotive time."

Mr Burns said the exhibition centre, which is about 80 metres long by about 40 metres
wide, was a write-off.

"Hail that was on that roof has buckled and mangled the steel," he said.

Mr Campbell said the state of emergency would make necessary financial assistance available
to the affected area.

"This assistance will help the community recover from the disaster and the damage it
has suffered, particularly to the public infrastructure," he said.

The Insurance Council today advised policyholders in Armidale to contact their insurance
providers immediately, so that their claims can be assessed as quickly as possible.

The council's chief executive, Kerrie Kelly, said insurers were working hard to assess
the damage as quickly as possible to facilitate a speedy recovery.

AAP pc/was/hn/jt/cdh

KEYWORD: HAIL NIGHTLEAD (PIX AVAILABLE)

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