‘People are desperate’: Mid-north coast residents plead for lasting flood solutions

Heartbroken residents on the devastated Mid North Coast say they cannot afford to insure their flood prone homes and are trapped because no one will buy them.

Insurers and disaster relief leaders are calling for homes to be raised or built back better and cash spent on infrastructure to flood proof low lying areas in the wake of last week’s devastating floods.

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese deployed 70 members of the Australian Defence Force to assist with the clean-up the NSW Minister for Recovery Janelle Saffin was calling for a different approach to tackle “unprecedented flooding”.

“When we rebuild damaged infrastructure or build new roads and bridges, we need to make them as resistant to natural disasters as possible,” she said.

“Everybody has to do more, whether that’s people raising and retrofitting their homes or the government strengthening essential infrastructure. These problems aren’t going to go away any time soon.”

At least 10,000 properties remain isolated with 276 damage assessment teams on the ground inspecting thousands of properties and ruling more than 500 uninhabitable. There have been more than 4000 insurance claims with the number expected to jump as people return to their homes.

Insurance Council of Australia CEO Andrew Hall said more needed to be done to improve rebuilding after floods and called for Commonwealth and State governments to put $30 billion to fund preventative infrastructure such as dams and levees.

“When a home is burnt down by a bushfire, or blown away by a cyclone, there are generally laws in place that require it to be built back to a higher standard, but those same laws don’t exist for flood,” he said.

Taylah Bleakley and her six-year-old daughter Thielen amid the wreckage of their backyard in Wingham caused by the recent flood. Picture Thomas Lisson

Mr Hall said Australia spends 97 per cent of disaster funding on recovery but only three per cent on prevention. “That’s why we’re seeing the same homes flooded again and again, each time built back in the same place to the same standard.”

The call for better infrastructure comes as heartbroken residents on the devastated Mid North Coast say they cannot afford to insure their flood prone homes and are trapped because no one will buy them.

Julie Page, 70, whose home in East Combined Street, Wingham, was filled with mud for the third time in 47 years said she and husband John were financially trapped and could not move.

“We’re too old to get a mortgage to move, and no one will insure you around here for floods because we live on low lying land which keeps getting flooded,” she said. “No one will insure us, we’re stuck.”

Mid Coast Mayor Claire Pontin said their story was repeated across the community. “This isn’t a rich area, people are desperate and insurers won’t give them insurance in a flood zone area,” she said.

Machine operator Chris Bleakley, 30, has been digging mud infested with eels from the home shares with wife Taylah, 26, and their six-year-old daughter Thielen.

After the 2021 floods they raised their home 1.8 metres on stilts thanks to a flood insurance payout by Allianz. But they were unable to renew the insurance.

“This time we’re buggered, even though we’re less affected than before, because this time no one will insure us,” he said.

Eleasha Duffy, a 30-year-old mother of two, said she was “out of tears” after her home in central Taree was completely devastated.

She bought the property three years ago and said she could not afford to pay $26,000 a year for flood insurance, which would cost “more than half” her salary.

After renovating her daughters’ bedroom several weeks ago, her bank balance is empty.

“What’s the government relief payment going to do? It’s $1000 per family and a couple of hundred dollars per child,” she said.

“$2000 won’t help me. That’s just a couple of sheets of Gyprock. I’ve got a whole house to fix ... we’ve got to find $50,000 to fix the place.”

After the 2022 floods in the Northern Rivers, the previous government put in place recovery measures including a scheme to buy back houses that were on the flood plains. NSW Premier Chris Minns has said he cannot promise to do the same on the Mid North Coast.

“Some (programs) have worked better than others, but I obviously don’t want to replicate a program that hasn’t delivered the kind of resilience that towns in the Northern Rivers had hoped for,” he said on Saturday.

Eleasha Duffy, a Taree mother of two whose home was severely damaged by the flood, said she could not afford to pay $26,000 a year for flood insurance. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Mr Albanese told residents in flood affected areas the government has “got your back” with ADF personnel joining those from Disaster Relief Australia and emergency personnel flown in from right across the country.

“People stepping up to help out because that’s the Australian way,” he said. “At the worst of times we see the best of the Australian character, and we’ve seen that once again in NSW.”

But not everyone behaved well with police vowing to “throw the book” at anyone caught looting after two men were caught allegedly stealing medical supplies and a defibrillator.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Peter Thurtell said stealing from people vulnerable during hard times was “un-Australian”.

“The impact of this weather event has been unimaginable and to think they now have to be concerned about hanging on to whatever property they have left is a disgrace,” he said.

Originally published as ‘People are desperate’: Mid-north coast residents plead for lasting flood solutions