NSW floods: ‘The river was roaring’: Wardell’s response to horror week
Residents have shared their raw emotion over the devastation of the flood and the “truly amazing” help that has followed. It comes as an undetonated military item was found.
Lismore
Don't miss out on the headlines from Lismore. Followed categories will be added to My News.
With clean-up efforts well under way on Monday, talk of an unexploded historic explosive device travelled through the town of Wardell.
The object was found in the grounds of Wardell Public School.
A NSW Police spokesman confirmed it was being dealt with.
“About 10am, officers attached to Richmond Police District were called to Richmond Str, Wardell, following reports an suspicious object was found by a member of the public,” he said.
“Police attended and moved the object to a secure location.
“The item will later be collected by the Australian Defence Force to be safely detonated.”
Wardell’s response to flood horror
As flood recovery continues across much of Northern NSW, residents of Wardell have been busy cleaning out their own homes and streets.
At the same time they’ve been instrumental in getting supplies to those still stranded in surrounding isolated areas.
Di Farrell from the NSW Rural Fire Service Wardell brigade said the town had been inundated with help in the form of donations, many of them coming from the Gold Coast.
Fresh food, baby products, cleaning supplies and other essentials have filled the town’s preschool.
Some communities like Bungawalbin and Coraki have remained isolated.
“They’re having helicopter drops, I think,” Mrs Farrell said.
“We’re still getting stories every now and again of people who haven’t eaten for days.
“We’re doing our best.”
She said on Monday morning, someone dropped by to pick up food to 30 families stranded in Empire Vale.
On Sunday, people were coming in cars and boats to collect supplies.
A team from Ballina Rotary were set up outside St Patrick’s Church cooking up food for residents and workers as a huge effort to clean up the streets continued.
The adjacent preschool has been a hub of various resources for those in need.
Mrs Farrell said some people had been hesitant to take goods from these well-stocked stores but she urged people to accept the help available.
Mrs Farrell has lived in the Broadwater and Wardell areas for about 30 years.
In those decades she has never seen a flood like this.
“We’ve never had anything like this before, ever, not in my time anyway,” she said.
“I lived right on the river in Broadwater and it never even crossed the road there.”
This time, houses in her old street went under.
“Same here (in Wardell), we were sandbagging and a lot of the old locals said it’ll never happen,” she said.
“It well and truly happened.
“We’d never seen anything like it. The river was absolutely roaring.”
Before the river peaked, her husband had been out at a house fire in Alstonville.
“He came home and he said that’s not the ocean roaring; that’s the water roaring under the bridge,” Mrs Farrell said.
“It was horrendous. The moorings were just banging. It was very eerie.”
She said the community was devastated and traumatised.
Communication challenges have added to the pain.
“The first day when we were trying to rescue people it was horrendous,” she said.
“My husband had to go into the SES to get a radio and even that wasn't working properly.”
But she said the tremendous show of support among the community was heartwarming.
“The community spirit has been awesome,” she said.
Helping hands after “horrifying”, unprecedented disaster
Stephen and Vicki Waddell have lived in Wardell for 20 years, 12 of them in their current home.
They echoed comments about the unprecedented nature of this flood which saw 900mm to 1m of water go through their home.
“Nobody imagined it would get this high,” Mr Waddell said.
Mrs Waddell said they’d witnessed a heartbreaking amount of livestock lost to the flood.
“It’s horrifying, looking at the loss of life,” Mrs Waddell said.
“We’re standing up on the bridge watching the livestock … they look right into your eyes.
“That will never leave us, never ever.”
The couple have also seen the best of humanity emerge through the disaster.
Mr Waddell said on Monday, six final year medical students turned up to help.
“It almost makes me want to weep,” he said.
“They were brilliant.”
Mrs Waddell, a nurse at Lismore Base Hospital, said their help wouldn’t be forgotten.
“I recognised some of the faces there and I’ll definitely be catching up with them eventually when I get back to work,” she said.
“They’re truly amazing.
“We’re alive and that’s the main thing; so many people have already lost their lives.”
Mayor speaks of “disaster zone”
Ballina mayor Sharon Cadwallader said parts of her shire were “a disaster zone” while the full extent of damage is still being tallied.
“A rapid impact assessment tells us we’ve got about 600 homes directly impacted,” Ms Cadwallader said.
“There’s still some people isolated and needing assistance with food and just basic needs, certainly fuel for their generators if they’ve got one.”
Ms Cadwallader said she’d heard of one home currently housing 25 people and a group of dogs in the Wardell area.
“We’ve still got people isolated at South Ballina, Keith Hall, Empire Vale, we’ve got people isolated around Pimlico; it’s our rural areas,” Ms Cadwallader said.
She said Ballina Shire’s reticulated water had been deemed safe to drink.
“But we’re going to need more help filling those tanks that were cleaned out … at South Ballina and other outlying areas,” she said.
The Ballina Masonic Centre has been used as a hub for resources for those in need.
Builder fighting Ballina siege charges
A North Coast man allegedly armed himself with knives and a golf club during a six-hour siege in which he told tactical police he would not come peacefully and they would have to “shoot him”. Here’s the latest.
‘Wouldn’t have a club’: How PNG is saving Australian rugby league
While the NRL is looking to transform PNG with a new rugby league franchise, it’s clear that the benefits of footy diplomacy go both ways.