Brisbane Lord Mayor, Adrian Schrinner, has revealed Council’s repair bill from the city’s biggest-ever rain event in February could top $1 billion dollars, with damage far exceeding the city’s devastating 2011 flood.
The Lord Mayor said an extensive assessment of Council assets and facilities had found the damage from the recent the flood is widespread, and could potentially end up costing three times the 2011 deluge bill.
“We have been working hard to make sure our city recovers as quickly as possible after what was a devastating flood event,” he said.
“The assessment that has been undertaken has found the cost of this disaster will far exceed the 2011 flood costs.”
In 2011, the repair bill was $440 million, with Council footing $106 million of the bill.
“We now expect the 2022 repair bill will be double or even triple the cost of 2011,” said Lord Mayor Schrinner.
“While the 2011 flood caused enormous damage, the 2022 event involved a combination of river, creek and overland flow flooding across 177 suburbs and this has caused far more damage to Council assets and facilities.”
He said that since the flood event, staff had been working hard to assess Council assets across the city, including streetlights, bikeways, sports fields, roads and playgrounds.
“To put things into perspective, flooding impacted 4,282 streetlights and bikeway lights, 863 parks, 300 playgrounds, 25 toilet blocks, more than 40 dog off-leash areas and 235 kilometres of bikeway.”
“This flooding was so fierce that parts of our bikeways were completely washed away while around 80 roads will need a substantial reconstruction or full resurfacing work.
“Our community facilities were also hit incredibly hard with 48% of our lease sites, which are used by our community groups and sporting clubs, damaged and these repairs alone will come with a major cost.”
He said Council was factoring in the city’s recovery as it prepares the 2022-23 Budget, which is due to be handed down mid-June.
“There will be a significant cost to the Budget, and this will come on top of two years of COVID, which has also had a significant impact.”
“Recovery and rebuild of this scale cannot happen overnight, and I thank residents for their patience as we plan and budget for our recovery plan,” the Lord Mayor said.
