Cyclone Marcia: Orange Sky cleans up after the storm

Lucas Patchett of charity laundry service Orange Sky hangs out some washing in front of a Yeppoon home damaged by Cyclone Marcia. Photo: Orange Sky

As Tropical Cyclone Marcia crossed the Queensland coast, Lucas Patchett and Nic Marchesi packed up their mobile laundry van and embarked on a 1090km journey to the disaster zone.

The 20-year-old co-founders of Brisbane charity Orange Sky, which provides a mobile laundry service for homeless people, had just set up an operation in far north Queensland when TC Marcia called.

Yeppoon resident Tony makes use of the free laundry service offered by Orange Sky. Photo: Orange Sky

A day on the road later, Orange Sky was in Yeppoon offering its services to people left without power and, sometimes, without roofs in TC Marcia's wake.

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"We pulled up this morning and people who had the walls and the roof of their house ripped off, with all their belongings soaked and no power in the whole of Yeppoon, they were pretty happy to get their clothes cleaned," Mr Patchett said on Saturday.

"I suppose it's one of the things you don't want to worry about when you're doing a big clean-up like that."

Orange Sky Laundry was set up about five months ago in Brisbane and earlier this month expanded into Cairns.

"The original plan was to have it operating up there on a priority basis in case there were any natural disasters," Mr Patchett said.

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Cyclone Marcia: Orange Sky cleans up after the storm