THIRTEEN houses in the tiny community of Beswick were inundated by flood waters after heavy wet season rains fell on the Easter long weekend, causing the Waterhouse River to rise significantly.
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But cooperation between the shire, community, government and other organisations has seen Beswick cleaned up quickly.
David Willing from the Department of the Chief Minister said that 13 dwellings and the store received various levels of inundation; however the school and clinic were not affected by the flood.
“The community has done a fantastic job of ‘getting on with it’ and cleaning up mess from the flood waters quickly,” Mr Willing said.
“We can see that they banded together during the response and followed that through to a swift recovery.
“The Department of Housing has worked closely with the Roper Gulf Shire and local residents to clean and check houses so people could get home quickly.
“The 13 homes which were inundated lost power during the flooding and needed to be inspected for electrical safety before the power could be switched back on.”
Mr Willing said all affected houses have now being cleaned, inspected and reconnected to essential services.”
He said staff and teachers at the local school, including the Wugularr School principal and his family, did an outstanding job managing the evacuation shelter, which was set up at the school.
“(Staff) minimised lost education time caused by the school closure (while) the school was used as a shelter for approximately 40 people during the flood,” he said.
Teaching resumed on Thursday last week.
The local store was back up and running within 24 hours.
Clinic services were temporarily relocated while power to the clinic building was disconnected, but have since resumed as normal.
