By Christine Chen
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Australian government said on Monday it would activate financial support for workers who lost income due to ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which has caused widespread flooding, power outages and property damage across the east coast.
The storm hit land north of Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city, late on Saturday after being downgraded to a tropical low, pummeling the states of Queensland and New South Wales.
One man has died and 12 soldiers deployed for assistance were injured after their vehicles crashed in wet conditions, authorities said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said workers whose income drops below the country’s average weekly wage would be eligible to apply for up to 13 weeks of financial support from Tuesday.
“We’ve got your back. That’s my message to the community,” Albanese told a press conference in the flooded town of Lismore about 700 km (440 miles) north of Sydney on Monday.
The income support would be equivalent to the country’s unemployment benefits scheme JobSeeker, currently set at A$778 ($490.76) a fortnight for a single person with no children and comes on top of a one-off, A$1,000 disaster payment announced over the weekend.
Authorities said more than 230,000 households and businesses were still facing power outages and thousands of properties were at risk of flooding after rainfall totals of up to 433mm (17 inches) in the past 24 hours.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said that while conditions would ease throughout the day, the risk was not over.
“There is still significant flooding occurring throughout south-east Queensland,” bureau meteorologist Sue Oates said. “More intense rainfall is possible, and there is an increased risk of dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding.”
Insurers have already received nearly 3,000 claims, the Insurance Council of Australia said on Sunday.
CEO Andrew Hall said it was too early to determine the total insurance bill but expected “many more thousands of claims as residents return to their homes and understand the full extent of the damage”.
Cyclone Jasper in 2023, the most rainfall-intensive cyclone in Australia’s history, resulted in insurers paying out A$409 million from 10,500 claims.
Cyclone Tracy in 1974 remains the costliest for insurers, with an estimated A$7.4 billion being paid out in today’s dollars.
($1 = 1.5853 Australian dollars)
(This story has been corrected to fix the current JobSeeker payment amount to A$778, not A$693.10, in paragraph 6)
(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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