The recent tornado that devastated parts of the Armidale region has left an impact in more ways than one.
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The terrible twister tore a four-kilometre wide path of destruction along Booralong Road in the north of Armidale for 42 kilometres towards Metz Gorge near Hillgrove.
A fantastic team effort was required from emergency services, Armidale Regional Council, utility providers, residents and volunteers in the aftermath - and the ongoing clean-up and recovery work is still underway.
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To date, there have been 61 disaster support requests through Services NSW and 1800 direct insurance claims by residents.
Alex Manners is the chief of assets and services for Armidale Regional Council; he said council is still leading multiple agencies during the clean-up in its role as leader of the Recovery Committee.
"And we are still working on waste collection and debris removal in the efforts to not only clean up but also to prevent further hazards, such as bushfire," Mr Manners said.
"Council is also working with the community on a planning front to ensure efficient processing of demolition and reconstruction applications."
Streets all over the city suffered damage with the storm flipping cars, slicing through power lines, and trashing scores of homes shortly after 10pm on Thursday, October 14.
The wild weather started with a severe thunderstorm, then came a dumping of hail, followed by the swift yet devastating tornado, before ending with the stars coming out. Not long after, confused and scared residents did too, trying to make sense of the madness.
More than 6400 residences were without power - some for days afterwards, despite a rapid response by Essential Energy.
More than 180 personnel were split into 28 teams comprised of SES, Rural Fire Service, BackTrack Youth Works, and the Volunteer Rescue Association to complete a total of 9000 hours of work in the first three days.
They responded to more than 300 emergency jobs and hundreds more in the following weeks.
In the end, 11 homes needed to be bulldozed.
The total waste removed in clean-up after the tornado is a staggering 620.18 tonnes made up of 501 tonnes of green waste, 2.1 tonnes of asbestos, 18.8 tonnes of concrete, 3.7 tonnes of wood waste, 24.88 tonnes of metal, and 69.7 tonnes of mixed waste.
Mr Manners said the clean-up phase was on track to be finished by the end of November, but that won't be the end of the recovery process.
"That process will be ongoing in terms of building applications and insurance, so the interagency Recovery Committee will continue to meet until those issues have largely been resolved and the community isn't presenting any new or outstanding issues on those fronts," Mr Manners said.
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