DON'T ABANDON YOUR HOME TOWNS, SAYS COSGROVE
Independent MP, Bob Katter, said the Cyclone Larry victims are like "a powderkeg" and warned it wouldn't take much for them to detonate.
"There are thousands of people walking the streets who have no homes, they have no jobs and they are very, very angry indeed," Katter was quoted as saying in the Courier Mail yesterday.
At the same time, the head of the recovery taskforce, General Peter Cosgrove, has appealed to those who lost their homes and jobs not to abandon the region by starting their lives over elsewhere.
"There is no technical health reason why they should leave. It's now a question of meeting their aspirations," General Cosgrove said.
There are now serious fears, as cited by Katter, that the thousands of locals now without homes and jobs and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder could "turn anti-social unless more help was delivered". Fears were aired late last week of victims being prone to suicide once the full scope of their monumental losses were absorbed.
More than 4000 people lost jobs through the destruction of the banana industry alone. Official figures of job losses from related businesses and destroyed farming industries have not been released.
