Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred flooded Australia's southeastern coast from late February to early March — but the nation is just beginning to understand the full extent of the damage to its farmers.
What was Cyclone Alfred?
Tropical cyclones are the same type of storm as hurricanes and typhoons, just over the South Pacific or Indian Oceans.
Storm Alfred was an official cyclone out at sea, but by the time it hit mainland Australia, it had weakened. Yet its heavy rains and high-speed winds still ended up wreaking havoc over New South Wales and Queensland, two of the country's coastal population centers.
Farmland was hit especially hard, with farmers in the area reporting $17 million in damages. Crops were lost across orchards of macadamia nut trees, coffee plantations, soybean fields, and common fruits and vegetables, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"It's definitely going to take a toll, that's for sure," Marty Walsh, who has five farms in the region, told the outlet.
The dairy industry was also set back as power outages forced workers to dump thousands of liters of milk. The only farmers who made it out unscathed seem to be rice growers, since rice demands a ton of water, ABC News explained.
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Why is this storm important?
While the ex-cyclone didn't hit Australia with its full force, it brought more fury than similar storms have in the past.
According to the NGO Climate Council, that's no coincidence. Australia's land and sea temperatures have steadily risen in recent years, and so have its surrounding sea levels. The result is that cyclones are packing more punch while also trending further south toward the nation's most populated states, the NGO noted in a press release.
"Many homes and infrastructure in southeast Queensland are not built to withstand cyclones and the destructive winds they bring," the statement said.
By mid-March, over 63,000 insurance claims had been filed due to the storm's damage. Meanwhile, economists anticipate that the massive losses across agricultural industries will drive everyday grocery prices up, according to Mongabay.
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Devoting resources to prepare for extreme weather like this can be costly, but as the cyclone showed, without efforts to mitigate the effects of the storm and continued action to bring the planet's warming temperatures back into balance, the impacts can be even more expensive.
How are recovery efforts helping farmers?
The New South Wales agriculture ministry is reviewing the damage. Its assessment will help roll out financial support for farmers to get back on track after they lost their livelihood. For a storm this size, primary agricultural producers can get a loan up to $130,000 and a transport subsidy of $15,000, per the ABC.
The government may not issue bigger "disaster grants" for ex-cyclone Alfred's impact. However, some state officials are pushing for farmers to receive more cash support, citing what was given during similarly severe flooding in 2022.
"I think it has to be a bare minimum of $25,000, that's normally where things start," NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders told the ABC. "In 2022, we tripled that and went to $75,000."
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