Port Macquarie: Community comes together to clean-up after destructive flooding
An army of men and women in work boots lined riverfront properties in Port Macquarie to repair the flood damage that destroyed large parts of their properties.
Mid-North Coast
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Many hands make light work, they say, and there was no greater example of that on Wednesday when hundreds of helping hands came together to help repair a damaged community ripped apart by flooding on the Mid-North Coast.
Volunteers from across the community stepped in to assist in the massive clean-up left over from one of the worst floods people have seen in their lifetime.
In the riverside street of Settlement Pt Dr, Port Macquarie, armies of local builders, forklift drivers, waste operators, dump-truck drivers and other accredited emergency service agencies came together for a working bee on Wednesday.
They were out helping clear the sludge, slime and silt from the properties of people like Sharon Jones.
“That’s my life out there on the lawn,” Ms Jones said.
“There’s a lot of my childhood and a lot of my mum’s stuff in there, she passed away two years ago.
“I’ve been through cyclones up in Cairns in Darwin … they’re more scary, but the water here was crazy. The cat wasn’t very happy either.
“But I’d say I’ve done well compared to some people. It’s just memories that I’ve lost, I can make new ones.”
At the Marina Holiday Park three doors down, manager Carol Curry was shovelling out the mud from decks of the cabins that are still left inside.
“The [flood[ water started to come just after nine o’clock and it just came in with a vengeance,” she said. “We were still here in the park … I just grabbed the handbag and the dog and left.”
“It was above the major flood level by eleven [o’clock].”
She returned early Saturday morning to notice that six cabin decks had disappeared in the deluge.
“If anybody finds six decks, let us know.”
“It’s really quite hilarious because they’re quite long, but we can’t even found a trace of them … probably down on Town Beach somewhere.”
Lauren Taylor described her mother and father’s garage as “an absolute shambles”
“We had about 15cm of just thick sludge … but we’re all getting in there and we’ve got a heap of volunteers helping out. It’s getting there, but it’s all a bit of a mess.
“The community spirit is alive though and we’ve had people stopping asking to help, stopping in, saying hello or helping and a lot of the local businesses have been dropping off so much food to us.So hopefully it will be done sooner rather than later.
Port Macquarie Mud Army volunteer Mariane Power has been door-to-door delivering food and water to workers and residents.
The group originated on Facebook and she and her two sidekicks Jaime Valentine and Tarnee Dymock heeded the call for help.
“Being able to just knock and say hello to people, it’s just the little things ... people need to know you care,” Ms Power said.
“I think the plan is to be here for the next few weeks. Once we’ve done this street, and they open up over there [North Shore] the plan is to head over.
“It’s just good to get in amongst it and meet people and help where we can.”
Grace Church Pastor David Morgan and his team have been wielding their weight around picking up property and dumping it on the street for tip trucks to take away.
“We just want to be a part of what’s happened and giving back to the community,” he said.
“We’ve had some teams down at Laurieton and Dunbogan and now we’re here.
“There’s just so many people in Port Macquarie pulling their weight … it’s really good to see.”
EARLIER:
In pictures: Aerial shots show full force of mother nature
Aerial images taken by emergency services personnel from the sky over Port Macquarie paint a devastating picture of the damage caused by what many are calling a one in 100 hundred year flood event.
It began as a severe weather warning for the region last Thursday and turned into one of the most significant flooding events residents have experienced in their lifetime.
The silver lining in an otherwise awful seven days is that the sun is out on Wednesday, and no lives have been lost which is what police and emergency services had maintained as a priority in the rescue and recovery effort.
The NSW SES has made 542 requests for assistance at Port Macquarie and 462 in the Taree region since Friday.
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting just a 10 per cent chance of rain for Port Macquarie on Wednesday, with half that predicted for Taree and Kempsey.
The dry weather will allow authorities to begin the massive effort of cleaning up, which will see support from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) which have been enlisted to help and are expected to arrive tomorrow.
Thousands of goodwill efforts and messages of support are also being shared on social media with groups being established to generate a groundswell of assistance for affected properties and residents.
Official emergency relief donation website GIVIT is accepting donations for specific requests for assistance here https://www.givit.org.au/severe-storms-and-flooding
The agency is recognised by the NSW Government as a preferred donor site.
The break in the rain has also brought about falling river levels throughout the Kempsey Macleay, Hastings and Wauchope regions.
The Macleay River level at the Kempsey Traffic Bridge continues to fall slowly, however evacuation orders remain for Kempsey CBD and low-lying areas of the Lower Macleay.
Hat Head and Crescent Head remain isolated. South West Rocks is currently isolated due to the closure of South West Rocks road from Kinchela to Jerseyville. large landslip has occurred on the Kempsey-Armidale Road. The road is closed as the slip covers much of the road.
The Hastings and Camden Rivers have fallen below the minor flood level at all sites. The Manning River at Taree peaked at 3.67 metres around 6pm Sunday with moderate flooding.
The river systems are either steady or falling.
Evacuation orders remain in place for residents of the North Shore, Port Macquarie, and low lying areas of Dunbogan, Laurieton and North Haven.
There are 17 Evacuation Centres currently open across the Mid-North Coast including:
Port Macquarie – Port Panthers
Port Macquarie – Port Macquarie Golf Club
Laurieton – The Laurieton United Services Club
Kempsey – Kempsey Showground
South West Rocks – South West Rocks Country Club
Taree – Club Taree
Wingham – Wingham Golf Club
Cundletown – Manning Valley Anglican College
Old Bar – Club Old Bar
Tuncurry – Tuncurry Bowling Club
Harrington – Harrington Function Centre
Manning Point – Manning Point Bowling Club
Port Macquarie-Hastings Council will hold an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday afternoon to consider a recovery strategy, and a report on relief measures for flood and storm impacted residents.
The report will consider waiving fees and charges on services for people suffering financial hardship as a result of floods affecting their property.
The range of services to which fees and charges would be waived include sewage, waste management and those associated with development applications, construction or building certificates.
The waiving of fees for food shop inspections and public health inspections, is also under consideration for customers, properties, and businesses impacted by floods.
It will be held at 4pm.
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