Residents of the city of Lismore in northeastern New South Wales, Australia began cleaning up on April 2 after floods caused by Cyclone Debbie receded.
Cyclone Debbie’s impact stretched 612 miles from Queensland’s tropical resort islands and Gold Coast tourist strip to the farmlands of New South Wales state.
State Emergency services ordered an evacuation on March 29 on 7,000 Lismore residents living in low-lying areas. Business owners are now back and assessing the damage inflicted by the disaster.
Many shops were damaged and stock was lost when cleanup efforts began.
Economists expect Debbie to negatively impact Australia’s $1.3 trillion (AU$1.7 trillion ) economy. They predict the disaster will slow the country’s economic growth to under 2 percent in the first quarter.
