Lismore flood watch: Severe weather warning for city cancelled

Severe weather warnings have been cancelled for Lismore, while the city remains watchful. Read how the relief arrived after a weekend of dread.

SES rescue patrolling Lismore basin Wednesday morning 30 March 2022.

Lismore’s severe weather warning has been cancelled, after the threat of major flooding loomed over the beleaguered city across the weekend.

Steady rainfall had left the Lismore CBD basin at risk of flash flooding as the Browns Creek flood gates remain shut, Lismore City SES unit commander Lucy Loloa said.

“The bureau have downgraded their warning to a moderate level now. It may reach around 7.8 meters tonight,” Ms Loloa said.

There are still some roads closed in Lismore: Cornell Road, Boat Harbour Road, Wyrallah Road, Orion Street, the western side of Snow Street and Tucki Road to Cook Road.

“These are some of the road closures that are around that our food rescue techs have reported back to us throughout the last few hours,” Ms Loloa said.

The Australian Defence Force is on standby to support the SES in case of an emergency, Ms Loloa said.

Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles are conducting pre-evacuation tasks with the local SES due to rising flood waters in Lismore and across the Northern Rivers. Photo: ADF

“There was a lot of pre-emptive preparation,” she said.

“Because of the major flood warning that was issued, we ... (conducted) door knocking just to inform the residents to prepare to evacuate.”

Ms Loloa said the community response had been incredibly helpful during the flood warning.

“The community has been ringing in and reporting rainfall totals around the area, and any road closures, so they’ve been absolutely fantastic.

“The community also assisted us when we put out a call for help with a very large sandbagging job within the CBD.

“We had about 40 RFS and community members helping and they smashed out a lot of sandbags.

The support from community volunteers critically freed up Lismore SES volunteers to go out and door knock homes in danger of flooding.

“Even just the messages of support through social media and face-to-face has been very uplifting to our members,” Ms Loloa said.

“Because at the end of the day, our volunteers are members of the community as well and they’re feeling just as much angst and anxiousness with the predictions.

“A lot of our members also lost homes and businesses earlier on in the year.

“They're people too, and they’re members of the community who are just as affected as everyone else.”