Lismore flood damage revealed as record water levels recede

People’s lives are piled up on their front lawns in heartbreaking scenes across Lismore as they clear their flood-ravaged homes. But they are finding strength as the city starts it fight back.

Devastation washed over Lara Bell when she arrived back at her Lismore home having left it as water lapped at the kitchen bench where she and her family had taken desperate refuge.

Lara Bell’s home on First Ave Lismore was drenched in mud Picture: Media-Mode.

She had family and friends with her on Wednesday morning to help drag her family’s sodden belongings and pile them up on the front lawn.

It was a similar scene across Lismore after stinking flood water receded far enough for destruction to become apparent.

Mrs Bell said she and husband Seth had moved everything they had in the downstairs section of their home upstairs on Sunday afternoon in preparation for a flood.

“We went to bed and woke up to absolute crashing and smashing and realised the flood had hit under the house,” Mrs Bell said.

Water soon started coming up through the floorboards.

They put their three children, aged 9, 5 and 3, on their king bed but soon realised that was not high enough.

They then moved to the kitchen table and benches.

Lara Bell began the clean up on Wednesday as flood waters receded in Lismore Picture: Media-Mode

The water was soon lapping at the bench tops so they punched out a fly screen window and were able to flag down a man in a large kayak.

“The eldest is very sensitive and he was absolutely terrified and freaking out and the other two were delighted,” Mrs Bell said.

She said she and her husband kept them calm by talking about their Christian faith.

They stayed with friends in Goonellabah having escaped with only their laptops and a folder with birth and marriage certificates.

Mrs Bell said the impact of seeing the damage first hand was overwhelming but support from friends and her Riverdove church community had given her strength.

“That has really buffered the trauma of it all,” she said.

Just around the corner a pile of ruined food was forming in the carpark at Lismore Spa Supermarket.

Produce manager Joe Sparks said everything in the store had been lost.

Joe Sparks says everything in his SPA Supermarket in East Lismroe was lost Picture: Media-Mode.

“It went up to the ceiling in the shop,” Mr Sparks said.

They only kept soap and hand sanitiser but not to sell, just to use during the clean up.

“It’s just depressing,” Mr Sparks said.

Staff members and their families loaded trolley after trolley with soaked goods and dumped them in the carpark.

Mr Sparks said he hoped to be open again as soon as possible but there was a lot of work to be done to make sure the shop was safe.

“The sooner we get open the sooner we can start serving the community again,” he said.

Meanwhile, James Street resident Angel Melton said her last minute scramble to safety with nine-year-old daughter Pearl should have been a calm evacuation.

Angel Melton was woken in her Gerard’s Hill home by her neighbours who were warning of the impending flood Picture: Media-Mode.

“There should have been a lot more notice,” Miss Melton said.

“There should have been evacuation notices 24 hours before.”

She said she was woken by neighbours from further down the hill who were running up warning everyone of the impending inundation.

“The neighbours came and broke the door down because water was just gushing in,” she said.

“Everyone in the street ended up in houses (of people) they had never met before.”

She said she had lost everything, including her home business.

“The house is wrecked because the flood water is toxic,” Miss Melton said.

“The whole thing is horrific when you are being marched out of the house.”

She said the support she had received from friends and the community had been unbelievable but she would look for a new home.

“I don’t want to go through it again,” she said.

“It will be here when we get back”

The hardest part of the flood damage for Sammarra Gerrey was finding a way to explain to her three autistic children that they had no toys left.

Samarra Gerrey and her husband Arron have been left with nothing after their Diadem Street home in Lismore was inundated by flood waters on Monday.

“I don’t know how to explain to them that it’s all gone,” she said

Her house on Diadem St, close to Lismore shopping square, was completely inundated with water tearing paint off her bedroom walls and warping her floorboards.

She has three young kids on the spectrum aged, 2, 4 and 8, and will never forget the horror at what the rising river levels did to her home and her family.

“At 1am they were asleep while we were packing up. They had no idea what was going on and why we were rushing,” she said

“We told them don’t worry everything will be here when we get back, but it’s flooded.”

As she walks through the muddied hallway after the flood water receded, the smell of moulding timber and wallpaper tells her she isn’t going to get anything back.

Sammarra Gerrey‘s living room has been destroyed by flood water.

In her backyard lays wheelie bins from two streets away and the play cubby house she bought for her kids is on her neighbours garage roof.

Her husband Arron has spent Wednesday with axe in hand, chopping their flooded furniture so they can fit it out the front door to get it onto the street.

The only thing they have salvaged is two TV’s and Mrs Gerrey’s knitting supplies.

Despite the big clean-up ahead of them, the shed out the back will be the toughest place to go.

That is where all of Mr Gerrey’s memories of his father are stored, who passed away recently.

They’ve all been destroyed.

“We haven’t gone there yet, that is going to be tough.” Mrs Gerrey said.

“We’ve lost pretty much everything.”

“Complete write-off”

Oscar Bakos thinks he will never retire after the devastating floods in Lismore engulfed his denture clinic on Uralba Street.

The 60-year old was staring at his workplace which he had run for 17 years, but was now inundated up to the whirly bird on the roof.

Oscar Bakos says the cost to repair his Uralba Street denture clinic will be in excess of $200,000 after the devastating Lismore floods.

On Tuesday morning, his shop was completely submerged but as the flood waters recede he can see the destruction it has caused and he says it is going to financially set him back 10 years.

Mr Bakos has estimated the cost of refitting and rebuilding the clinic as well as replace his supplies will cost him over $200,000.

The flood water left a muddy mark on the roof of Oscar Bakos’ Uralba Street denture clinic.

The Lismore VET Clinic next door to him was all but covered in water with just the road sign sticking up in defiance above the ground.

“I was looking forward to maybe retiring one day, but not now,” he said.

“2017 (floods) wasn’t a total tragedy for us, we were back up and running in a week.

“This is a complete write-off of everything.”

The VET clinic on Uralba Street is totally submerged with just the road sign sticking out of the water.

Mr Bakos is fearful that the government won’t provide enough support to the business community and warned that without it Lismore would “disappear”.

He says the government needs to get “gutsy” to be certain insurance companies are providing the cover to people who need it.

“I don’t know if the town will survive this time,” he said.

“This is ten times worse, this will knock the life out of the community.

“After 2017 you could see shops were empty but they were starting to fill up, now you can forget about it, this will wipe people out.”

Mr Bakos was devastated to hear the confirmation of the death of loved locals, Marge Graham and Lorraine Hyman on Wednesday afternoon.

The deaths in the community devastate him and his concern is what the floods will do to people in the aftermath.

“I’m worried about potential suicides,” he said.

“People have lost a lot, some will never get it back and we have to look out for their mental health.”