During late December 2010 and early January 2011, Queensland experienced one of its worst flooding disasters in history. Sadly, these floods resulted in a large loss of life, and thousands of homes, properties and businesses were flooded as nearly three-quarters of the state was declared a disaster zone.

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, Wesfarmers donated $5 million to the Queensland Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal. In providing assistance to the huge recovery program, Wesfarmers recognised not only the scale of the disaster but the severe and ongoing disruption caused to the livelihoods of many people in that state.

With a large number of Wesfarmers' retail, resources and insurance operations – including nearly 40,000 employees – located in Queensland, many of our businesses also made significant contributions, some of which are detailed here.

Coles responded immediately with a $1 million donation to the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal. The floods (and subsequently a cyclone) had a significant impact on the business in Queensland: Coles was forced to close 23 supermarkets, 35 liquor stores, 13 Coles Express sites and six hotels.

With our usual major road and rail transport routes into Queensland cut off, it was necessary to organise air and sea freight to make emergency food deliveries to the most affected areas. About 120 tonnes of food were airlifted to service Cairns and Townsville. One of our distribution centres for Queensland was flooded, making it inoperable. As a consequence, we established a temporary facility and re-routed deliveries from Sydney. More than 500 tonnes of food were sent to far north Queensland by truck and more than 700 tonnes sent by sea freight from Sydney to service Cairns and Townsville.

To ensure the ongoing availability of basic food items for the town of Emerald, a temporary store was established at the Emerald Police and Citizens Youth Club.

The temporary Coles stocked about 200 staple food and grocery lines and operated from January until a new Coles Emerald supermarket opened in June 2011.

As well as opening up Coles' registers to customer donations, which raised more than $4.3 million for the Queensland Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal, many of the Queensland stores also came to the aid of emergency service teams and evacuation centres, donating essential items such as water, toilet paper, bread, milk and meat.

Bunnings' response was also immediate with Queensland team members providing support assisting local emergency service groups in sand bagging and running sausage sizzles for support teams. Queensland team members also provided on the ground assistance at evacuation centres, holding sausage sizzles for emergency services and those displaced from homes, as well as running activities for children and adults throughout the day and night.

Bunnings stores across Australia and New Zealand helped raise and contribute more than $730,000 to the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal through fundraising sausage sizzles and cash donations.

Bunnings also committed a further $1 million in direct support for flood affected communities which was supported by Bunnings team members assisting local communities with clean-up work, as well as long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts. At the end of the 2010/11 financial year, more than 700 community groups were assisted through donations and hands-on support from the Bunnings team.

This work is ongoing and local teams continue to support community groups affected.

Bunnings had a number of sites affected by the flooding which were forced to temporarily close. Rocklea and Oxley Warehouses were significantly impacted and remained closed until March 2011. Teams from these stores worked tirelessly in the clean-up and rebuild to ensure that stores reopened in the quickest possible time to support the local community in their recovery efforts.

Target was also affected by the floods. A number of stores were inundated by the flood waters, and were forced to temporarily close. In Emerald, a temporary store was established to ensure customers could still access basic necessities. Target team members who were affected were assisted with a total of $46,000 worth of gift cards and $5,000 towards car insurances. As a business, Target donated $100,000 to the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal and collected an additional $283,276 through the generosity of customer donations.

A number of Kmart and KTAS stores, as well as a distribution centre, were either flooded or forced to close due to flood waters cutting off access for team members and customers.

Kmart assisted team members that were affected through the provision of accommodation and more than $60,000 in gift cards to replace damaged goods. Our team members also raised an additional $18,900 for fellow team members that were affected. Our customers across Australia and New Zealand donated more than $230,000 and the Kmart business donated over $14,000 worth of supplies to local schools including back packs, sports equipment, electrical goods and stationery. In addition, Kmart contributed an estimated $100,000 in emergency goods to those in need.

The damage caused by the flood waters also extended into central Queensland. Notwithstanding the significant impact the major flooding had on production at Wesfarmers Resources' Curragh coal mine, Wesfarmers Curragh donated $50,000 to the Central Highlands Regional Council Flood Appeal. The division also matched employee donations.

Our Industrial and Safety division donated $50,000 to organisations contributing to the Queensland flood relief, donated products and facilitated a further $870,000 in supplier product donations. In addition, Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety approached freight companies for support to deliver donated products to the local communities.

Wesfarmers Insurance paid flood affected customers more than $39 million in claims to 30 June 2011. The response by team members to the disaster was not only as efficient as possible, but their generosity through a salary sacrifice scheme collected $20,000, which was matched by the business.

Officeworks conducted fundraising activities for customers and team members, contributing more than $100,000 in donations to the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal. Officeworks also provided free photocopying and scanning of insurance- related paperwork for customers and donated gift cards and products to families whose back-to-school supplies were lost in the disaster.

While the impact of the disaster will be felt for a long time by many people, making a contribution to assist Queensland rebuild and recover reflects Wesfarmers' commitment to its local communities.