Ray White rallies in the rain
BY ALEX TILBURY
In the aftermath of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, many of our south east Queensland and northern New South Wales offices were ready to lend a helping hand to their communities and clients, even while dealing with the aftermath in their own lives.
The extreme weather event sat off the country’ s east coast for a week in early March, culminating in a tense weekend for many in the region. Ray White Nambour selling principal Matt O’ Grady couldn’ t sleep as the rain was hammering down on the roof at his home as the wild weather became more intense.
“ I couldn ' t sleep on the Saturday night so I got to the office at 3:30am to check and it was completely destroyed and underwater,” he said.
“ Everything in the office was ruined, nothing could be saved.
“ Two cars had literally washed up onto the footpath outside our shop( pictured below). But the main thing was no one was hurt and for that I am extremely thankful.”
Glenn Fallon has been the sole proprietor of Ray White Hervey Bay since 1983 which is positioned right on the beachfront esplanade at Torquay in Queensland. Glenn said the“ super cell” that pummelled his town was“ extraordinary”.
“ I have lived in Hervey Bay my whole life and I have never seen anything like this. We had 330mm of rain in just three hours,” Glenn said.
“ My house was ok but the business was flooded and everyone lost power. Places that had never, ever flooded before were flooded. We had water coming in from the rain and the creek was swollen. We had a lot of tenants who were flooded too.
“ My staff were all ok and working remotely. We all got to the office at 7am to do what we could to help clean up( pictured below).”
Ray White Hervey Bay property management team leader Morgan Scrivens said the coastal town experienced some severe flash flooding.
“ Unfortunately many of our rental properties were affected, some of our tenants had to evacuate their homes,” she said.
“ We were completely inundated with emails of concerns from both owners and tenants, which we slowly worked our way through by triaging those that were most urgent.”
Nick McSweeny, business development and property manager at Ray White Paddington, said they were fortunate compared to others but the weather event still brought an array of issues to the inner Brisbane area.
“ We had leaking roofs, water ingress inside homes, fallen trees, collapsing fences, erosion causing safety concerns- just a few things that kept our seasoned team busy at Ray White Paddington,” Nick said.
“ It ' s important to acknowledge, under guidance from our principal, the planning before Alfred hit. We offered, like most agencies and body corporates, information and tips pending the storms.”
RWC Southwest lead asset manager Nichole Brown said she had a few late night calls from concerned commercial tenants, largely due to high winds, with one tenant losing both a section of their roof, and their roller door being blown from its tracks.
“ We took pre-emptive measures in the lead up and provided both tenants and landlords with a list of ways to mitigate flood and wind damage, emergency contact details and processes, and links to key council and emergency websites,” Nichole said.
“ Because of the relationships we ' ve built with our clients over the years, we received an overwhelming response from both landlords and tenants checking in to make sure our management team and families were safe, which was really appreciated.”
Ray White Waterford business owner Lisa Knowles said while their office was largely unaffected, the community saw quite a bit of damage.
“ A lot of the roads were blocked and there were quite a few power outages and even some cell service disruptions,” she said.
“ The week before, we packed up the entire office and took everything upstairs to safety as our office did flood in 2022. We learnt a lot from the 2022 floods. We were a lot more prepared this time.
“ The week before the cyclone, we gave everyone all the contact numbers they might need. Then the morning after the worst of it, we sent another update to all our tenants, landlords, and clients.”
Ray White AKG business owner Avi Khan said many of his staff were unable to get to the office in Marsden due to dangerous conditions.
“ Our community was hit hard by the floods and a lot of people were displaced. Our local businesses struggled as well,” Avi said.
“ Some neighbourhoods faced the daunting task of rebuilding, but there was an incredible community spirit. I saw signs with people saying‘ we have power, come recharge’.
“ We were super proud of our property management team who swiftly transitioned to working from home and had the goal of making more than 4,000 calls in the week after to our tenants and landlords to make sure everyone was being looked after.”
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