Lismore 'a piece of the jigsaw puzzle' in flood review

LISMORE City Council staff have sat down with flood reviewer, Dave Owens to discuss the council's role in the response to the one-in-40 year flood.

SES and police emergency crews move through the centre of Lismore looking for people in need of evacuation during the March floods. Picture: Marc Stapelberg

'A FRESH set of eyes' into the March floods was welcomed by Lismore City Council's general manager after discussions today with council staff and head of the independent review, Dave Owens.

Gary Murphy said he and council executives Brett McAllister and Gary Murphy were quizzed on the council's actions in the lead up to and during the natural disaster by Mr Owens.

"He was really interested to hear Lismore City Council's perceptive on the flood," the general manager said.

Mr Murphy said Lismore was "a piece of the jigsaw puzzle" in the review process and expressed confidence that Mr Owens would compile a "very thorough" report for Minister for Emergency Services, Troy Grant. 

"I think, I'm sure without pre-empting the outcome there will be some lessons learnt," he said.

"Hopefully they can be applied to not just to future events in Lismore but to the broader context of flood response."

Gary Murphy, General Manager of Lismore City Council. Photo Mireille Merlet-Shaw / The Northern Star. Picture: Mireille Merlet-Shaw

Most importantly, Mr Murphy anticipated the community would eagerly await possible changes to emergency response that may come from the report.

Based on his discussions with business owners and residents, Mr Murphy said the timeliness around flood and evacuation warnings were "some of the major concerns".

"I think there will be some cautious optimism but I think there will be some some expectation as to what will come out of the report," Mr Murphy said.

Mr Murphy said it would also "seem logical there would be some review into the information provided by the Bureau of Meteorology" to the SES during the flood.

He addressed what he described as confusion surrounding the council's knowledge of the independent review announced by Minister for Emergency Services, Troy Grant.

"In previous discussions with the SES commissioner, he did indicate to us that one of the options open to him was to commission an independent review," Mr Murphy said.

"We weren't quite sure if (the review announced by the minister and the SES external review) were one of the same.

"It turned out that the review commissioner by the minister is the review of the SES process. "