CORINDI STORM: ‘I don’t think people realise the magnitude of this’

Locals band together to help devastated residents as calls grow for state assistance and disaster declaration

An image from a Corindi resident impacted by the storm event on Thursday, February 25.

While Corindi locals work tirelessly to assist their fellow residents after last week’s devastating storm, calls are growing for more government assistance.

Affected residents and volunteers met with Coffs Harbour MP Gurmesh Singh and Coffs Harbour City Councillor Tegan Swan to air their concerns yesterday at the makeshift recovery centre at Corindi Rural Fire Service shed.

One of those was Fiona Hayes, who has been spearheading the community-led recovery effort by sourcing and distributing food, livestock feed and equipment.

Images from residents in Corindi who were impacted by the major storm event on Thursday February 25, 2021.

With all the donations coming from the small businesses and the community, she was hoping there could be more Government support and a natural disaster declared.

READ MORE: Rainfall figures off the charts from Upper Corindi ‘tsunami’

“We are relying on people’s goodwill at the moment and I thought that someone would come and go ‘we got it now Fi’ but there is no person owning it,” she said.

“It’s sad that local small businesses have to contribute out of their bottom line to support what is obviously a crisis.”

Corindi community members have been coordinating assistance from the Corindi RFS shed, organising meals for families which have been donated by local businesses. Photo: Tim Jarrett

Coffs Harbour City Council have made efforts to link affected land holders with support through an information hub at the Amble Inn held over the weekend and have already taken away a significant amount of goods irreparably damaged by the flash flooding.

It has also providing drinking water testing and septic inspections and advice.

‘I don’t think people realise the magnitude of this’

Driving no more than a kilometre down Corindi Park Drive and local RFS captain Rob Cox points out the first house impacted by the flash flooding, from then on he says, “100 per cent” of landowners have been affected.

Images from residents in Corindi who were impacted by the major storm event on Thursday February 25, 2021.

One house has what looks to be its entire contents stacked in boxes on the front verandah.

As he drives property after property with fences down or rubbish stacked up in a pile he recalls getting the call on Thursday night to help residents in trouble.

The force of the flash flooding was so strong that it managed to dislodge materials installed alongside Solitary Islands Way to stop erosion. Tonnes of rocks were "rolled up like a sausage" as a result. Photo: Tim Jarrett

With water over the road in places he had never seen before and a downpour so immense that you “couldn’t see (the water) until you were right on top of it”, Mr Cox was largely helpless, unable to access the people who needed help the most.

In one spot along Solitary Islands Way the force of the water, which many have described as being like “a tsunami”, moved tonnes of stone ballast installed along the road and “rolled it up like a sausage” in its geo-fabric underlay.

A raspberry grower had his crop and equipment decimated by the force of flash flooding on Sherwood Creek Rd. Photo: Tim Jarrett

Along a section of Sherwood Creek Rd, a raspberry farm has been decimated, wiping out crops and agricultural infrastructure.

“We were tasked to go to Upper Corindi road. The report was a woman and four children standing on the kitchen table and we couldn’t get to them. The floodwaters were too high,” he said.

“I don’t think people realise the magnitude of this,” he said.