Victims of floods may be housed at Victoria’s abandoned $580 million quarantine facility on the outskirts of Melbourne as wild weather wreaks havoc on the state.
During a Friday briefing on the flood disaster, Premier Daniel Andrews said he was considering utilizing the “white elephant” Mickelham quarantine facility.
One person went missing on Friday afternoon, while more than 500 houses have been submerged and another 500 are now cut off by floods.
Mr. Andrews said that he had discussed housing Victorians at the Mickleham site with the Federal government.
Ironically, it happens only days after the state government shut down the hospital, which had housed Covid patients in isolation for eight months.
We believe there is a strong possibility that we will need to shelter individuals at that facility (Mickleham), Mr. Andrews said.
“We have 500 residences with water over the flooring and another 500 that are cut off,” the official said. That number will undoubtedly increase.
“Victorians will have everything (they need),” the Prime Minister promised me when we met this morning.
The 1,000-bed quarantine facility at Mickleham, which is 50 kilometers north of Melbourne, was originally intended to provide as a secure location to house those isolating with Covid-19.
Ironically, that happens just after the plant was shut down. Its exorbitant price and the fact that it was opened during the conclusion of the COVID-19 epidemic generated criticism.
Only 2,168 persons utilized the institution overall, and 500 of its beds were never even occupied.
Without accounting for operating expenses of around $1.5 million each week in its early months, construction expenditures came up to $267,527 for every individual who stayed there.
But curiously, Craig Lapsley, Victoria’s emergency management commissioner from 2014 to 2018, had demanded that the facility be modified to lodge people fleeing natural catastrophes like floods.
“I remember that we spent a lot of time wondering how many caravans we could buy during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. He asked The Sunday Age, “How many homes might we get?
Government services are available on-site at Mickleham’s well-built housing, according to Mr. Lapsley, making it a potential safe haven for families displaced by floods and bushfires.
Even if it may not be appropriate in every situation, having something prepared and ready to go is, in his words, “a really beneficial piece of infrastructure in establishing those emergency plans for the state.”
From the Dandenongs to the shore, according to Mr. Lapsley, it is accessible because of its location, but he emphasized that it was designed for functionality rather than for community use.