Lismore, Australia – Late February Torrential rain fell in the northern part of the Australian state of New South Wales, submerging the area under intense floods.
Now – with residents still trying to rebuild – the area has been hit again, leaving many in despair.
“I think if they had a choice, they would leave because so many of them have literally finished cleaning their homes only to get flooded again,” says owner chemist Lismore. , Kyle Wood, told Al Jazeera.
“People are still the same compared to others, and it’s not like the town has [been] repaired… there are still quite a few thousand houses condemned and people displaced everywhere. ”
When it rained last month, Wood thought his shop – which was higher up the street, up a small flight of stairs – would be safe.
But when it rained, Lismore and other towns on the Northern Rivers, the area’s official name, were so deep that people had to climb onto the roofs of their homes.
By 3 p.m. on February 28, the water level of the Wilsons River, which flows through the center of Lismore and is the region’s main tributary, was 14.37 meters (47 feet) – two meters more than the previous record high in February 1954.
The water “passed through and destroyed” Wood’s chemist, turning everything but the top two floors of the medical station into a wet, smelly mess.
Some people managed to evacuate, but many were trapped inside their homes as the water rose.
MJ, a resident of Woodburn, a town about 34km (21 miles) south of Lismore, said before floodwaters hit town, people moved their cars to her street because it was “one of the highest places” in town.
“And then the water just kept flowing, and coming, and coming,” she said.
MJ’s 89-year-old neighbor, Toby Bell, was rescued from his sister’s porch a few doors down when the flood rose to the second floor.
He waded past her while he still could.
“All we could hear were cows and calves [going] into the river,” he said.
Like Bell, hundreds The people across the North River were trapped in their homes.
In just 24 hours, the State Emergency Service (SES), a state government emergency and rescue service for natural and man-made disasters, received 927 calls for help from people only in Lismore.
Nancy Grimm and Daniel Clark, two SES volunteers in Coraki, about 24 kilometers (15 miles) south of Lismore, said it was almost impossible to accommodate everyone that day.
“It was… the three of us answered the phone and those who came in, in tears, said “my relatives… water.” [is] into their house,” Grimm said, “and then go back to “did you catch this person” and it was really heartbreaking… we had to try to keep a clear head and gather information. ”
Clark and other volunteers pulled the SES boat out and community members on the private boat joined the rescue effort.
“I feel like a community, everyone is trying to do their own thing,” Grimm said.
The houses are uninhabitable
When the water is clean, more than 2,800 homes are considered uninhabitable and about 1,234 people are in temporary and emergency accommodation.
“It took everything we had…everything [except] Bell said.
Military officers equate damage “in human terms” with that of a war zone.
“Unfortunately, war has a pretty big impact on people. It causes great trauma… and natural disasters too,” said Brigadier General Robert Lording, NSW Flood Operations Commandant, adding that people in Lismore and the wider Northern Rivers area have “lost their homes, lose all their assets, in many cases they also lose their livelihoods”.
MJ, a maker of custom-made toys, says the floods “destroyed my tools, disappeared, my wood, disappeared.”
“It was overwhelming to go see my garden… dead,” she said.
“Then my older neighbors, who were so proud of their gardens, they actually entered the competitions, so that was… what kept them alive,” she said, “… They feel like they’ve lost a lot of that.”
But despite the loss and trauma, the area is slowly recovering.
The Australian Defense Force (ADF) and other services have been deployed, and volunteers from across Australia have flocked to the area.
Mark Isaac, who runs a “community-organized recovery effort” in Wardell, a town about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of Lismore, says most of the donations his team receives be from other Australians.
“At the moment we have… cleaning supplies, all the things to really clean the house, gurneys and brooms and brooms,” he said.
State and national services, such as the ADF, SES and the Rural Fire Service (RFS) are also involved.
Much of the work is about “bringing people in to help physically,” says Brigadier Lording.
“But we also have specialized capabilities,” he added, ranging from engineers to “Air Force, [which has] did a lot of work to provide maps and geospatial information that will inform future planning. ”
Meanwhile, locals have also begun to recover. Bell, whose house now stands like a giant rib cage, bare on his land, says he will “have to live” there.
“No one is going to buy it,” he said.
He would stay in a caravan with his sister and her son until his house was rebuilt, and “go as far as [he] maybe” on the money he had, he added.
In fact, housing is an important issue in the North River, with thousands of people have to be displaced by the floods of February.
Lifeline’s general manager in Northern Rivers, Michael Were, whose team operates a distribution facility in Lismore, says two important questions continue to be raised.
“Where do people go right now that can’t return to their homes?” he say. “…The second thing, and again, it’s still housing, it’s people whose homes have the ability to be refitted and rebuilt. But do they have sound structure? ”
In fact, the recovery could take years, he said.
“Right now, the town is doing a lot of research on adrenaline,” he said. “So, “I have to clean my house, I have to do these chores,” and more… when all of that starts to calm down a bit, that’s when mental health really does. the beginning to appear. ”
Financial stress
Many residents were left uninsured, adding to the stress of the situation.
Wood cleaned up his pharmacy at the first flood warning. “(I) simply cannot lose anything more,” he said.
Wood and others say flood insurance is not available or too expensive.
“[We had it] Bell said.
“They want an extra 20,000 ($14,946) a year for flood insurance, and you can’t pay for that with a pension. It’s more than what you get! ”
On the ground in Lismore now, floodwaters are knee-deep, Wood said. Some employees are in his building “punching the walls and getting stuff out,” and he’s waiting for the water to subside so he can go back in and assess the extent of the new damage.
“We really put [our fridges] to the top of the board and things just to keep them away. So hopefully they’ll be fine,” he said.
Others are still at evacuation centers, waiting until it is safe to return to their properties.
About 20 flood evacuation orders were still in place in NSW’s Northern Rivers and North Coast regions as of Thursday but MJ, despite being “completely cut off” and without supplies, expects the challenge to be possible. end soon.
“The sun is out and the forecast looks good for the next eight days,” she said.
