After a disaster

Disasters affect people differently and while some recover quickly, others may take a long time to heal.  Your body and mind may be affected by the disaster months later.  Some things that you can do to help you recover emotionally include:

• Spend time with family and friends
• Check on your neighbours
• Try to return to your everyday routines
• Eat healthy food, drink plenty of water, and get enough sleep
• Seek specialist support when you need it

Where to get help

Lifeline Queensland Community Recovery provides counselling or 'psychological first aid' to support people as they work through shock and begin to come to grips with their disaster experiences.  You can also visit the Lifeline Australia web site - www.lifeline.org.au - or call them on 13 11 14.

The Australian Red Cross offers disaster recovery services and resources to help you and your community as well as children and young people.

The Queensland Government also offers support and financial assistance after a disaster.  Call the Community Recovery Hotline on 1800 173 349 or visit the Queensland Government 'Recovery after a disaster' web page for more information.

The RSPCA has information about looking after your pets during and after a disaster on their Disaster and Alerts web page.

Cleaning up after a disaster

It's important to protect yourself and your loved ones in the aftermath of a disaster.  Hazards like fallen power lines, storm debris, and contaminated water - just to name a few - can be deadly.

The Queensland Government 'Health, wellbeing and cleaning up' web page provides links to fact sheets and further advice on how to safely clean up after a disaster.

Donations

GIVIT (https://www.givit.org.au/) is a national not-for-profit organisation that matches donation offers with identified requests from a storm, fire, flood, or cyclone-affected region; eliminating the need for organisations to store and sort unexpected donations. 

GIVIT manages all offers of donated goods and services during recovery and 100% of donated money received by GIVIT is used to purchase essential items. GIVIT purchases items from local providers to support the local economy as it also recovers. 

If you want to donate goods to people who have been affected by a natural disaster in our Region, please pledge your offer at givit.org.au.

Business Recovery

The Queensland Government can help businesses after a disaster, including information on how to rebuild. Please read more information from the Queensland Government - Disaster Resilience page.

Disaster assistance for primary producers can be found at Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority website. 

Primary Producers who experience losses or damage to their property are encouraged to fill in the Natural Disaster Impact Survey to help the Queensland Government and industry quickly assess the regions for financial recovery assistance. This form and further information to assist in recovery can be found on the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries website at its natural disaster ehub.

Visit the other pages in this section for information about what to do after specific disaster events.

For more information, please visit the Get Ready Queensland website.