Howard offers Army help to WA’s cyclone affected areas
Prime Minister John Howard says the Army is available to help towns in Western Australia’s north-west as they recover from cyclone George.
A 47-year-old woman was killed and 28 others were injured when George crossed the Pilbara coast last week.
The region is now bracing for cyclone Jacob.
Mr Howard says he has spoken to Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter telling him any additional assistance that is needed will be made available.
“Fortunately the agency of both the Commonwealth and the state’s work together very closely and very quickly when these emergencies arise and everything will be done at both a Commonwealth and a state level to ensure that assistance is properly made available,” he said.Cyclone Jacob
The Port of Dampier in north-west Western Australia is preparing to go into lock-down as it waits for the arrival of a second cyclone in less than 72 hours.
Cyclone Jacob was initially forecast to match the intensity of cyclone George which caused widespread damage across the region on Thursday night.
The system weakened overnight and has been downgraded to a category two.
The head of the Dampier Port Authority, Steve Lewis, says they are expecting cyclone Jacob to come much closer than cyclone George did and the Port will be officially closed later today.
“We’ve only partially opened between the two cyclones,” he said.
“We were able to get an LNG tanker in yesterday that was able to fill, but we’re going through the process today of officially closing, sometime during the day, probably around 12pm and that’ll be it, then we’ll just be waiting for the impact of Jacob.” In other developments:
- A union which represents thousands of workers in Western Australia’s north is calling for an investigation into why about 200 people were left at a construction site during severe tropical cyclone George. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1868335.htm)
- Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter has arrived in Port Hedland in Western Australia’s Pilbara to assess the damage caused by cyclone George. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1868434.htm)
- Tropical cyclone Jacob is continuing to track towards Western Australia’s north-west coast. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1868589.htm)