Having grown up in Townsville, I know very well that North Queenslanders are a resilient bunch and will recover quickly from the impacts of Cyclone Ita, although, as we’ve seen, the immediate impacts on some families and communities have been severe (see Ita’s clean up to be lengthy and costly and Cyclone Ita smashes Ingham’s four-million-tonne sugar cane crop). I’ve posted before on how communities and economies bounce back quickly from natural disasters and how the macroeconomic impacts of disasters tend to be small:
Recovery from natural disasters
Northern and Far North Queensland account for around 9% of the Queensland economy (see Queensland Treasury’s Experimental Estimates of Gross Regional Product). Even if the cyclone affected regional gross regional product (GRP) by 1% over the year, the impact on gross state product (GSP) would be less than 0.1%.
Queensland Economy Watch 
Having grown up in Rockhampton , I can agree that NQ will pick themselves up after Ita. Givit – Here is a good proactive organisation that assists direct support to get where it the people who need it – by liking specific requests for assistance to donors.
http://www.givit.org.au/
They have list of donations required – Water purification tablets, Bunnnings Vouchers, kettles and toasters – and money always helps.
Thank-you
Thanks for the information about Givit, Katrina. I hadn’t heard of it before.