Hell and high water: Tales of surviving the Lismore floods

Huddled in the roof of his house, Mitch Moore felt like he was on the Titanic: ‘the ship is sinking and there’s nowhere to go’. Read the stories from Lismore.

As the murky water filled the rooftop cavity of the stilt house where his family huddled, truck driver Mitch Moore rammed his cordless angle grinder through the corrugated iron.

As his three dogs barked and the cockatiel Spike screeched, Mitch’s wife Heather Lickiss and her son silently prayed that they would not drown in the torrent of water from Wilson River engulfing Lismore.

“It was rising up the stairs one foot (30cm) every 15 minutes, it was like sitting in a room in the Titanic, the ship is sinking and there’s nowhere to go,” said concrete truck driver Mr Moore, 27.

Mitch Moore and Heather Lickiss had to cut a hole in the corrugated roof to escape and be rescued by boat. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“I had to save my family and get us out of the roof, I cut the metal with everything I had. We were inside the roof for four hours … when I pulled back the sheet of metal there was daylight. And water, so much muddy water lapping against the roof.

“Lismore was a giant river and we were it. The SES got it so bloody wrong, we’ve lost everything.”

The couple’s $265,000 three bedroom weatherboard home was shunted 50m sideways into the neighbour’s yard by the sheer force of the water. The family was finally collected by a tinnie manned by one SES member and a local.

While they wait to learn if the house is an insurance write-off, they are using their savings and money from their $1000 disaster payment to pay for three $130 a week demountables to live in while they fix the wreckage.

“We didn’t even take a bag of clothes, we thought we’d come back and find things after the water had subsided but when we returned it had gone,” said transport depot manager Ms Lickiss.

The house on Lake St in North Lismore was washed 50 metres into their neighbours’ backyard by the flooding Wilsons River. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“We just grabbed our birth certificates, passports and wallets. Just documents to show we exist. We only bought the house a year after the 2017 floods: that was only 600mm of water in the house, nothing.

“We’re insured but not for floods – it’s too expensive, we can’t afford it.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week announced residents in Richmond Valley, Lismore and Clarence Valley can access a further $2000 for adults and $800 for children through an extension of the Disaster Recovery Payment scheme.

Now that the government has declared the flood, deemed worse than the devastating 1976 catastrophe, a nat­ional emergency, it will trigger a federal intervention and more government money to help families rebuild homes.

“They can pay for this, they messed it up, if I see Scott Morrison I’ll tell him what I think,” Ms Lickiss said.

“A lot of ­people are looking for him. The house is still creaking, she’s settling. Without government help, we can’t fix her.”

Lismore begins the monumental clean-up following an extreme flooding event in northern NSW. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Danielle Smith

Mr Moore said: “If they couldn’t predict what was going on, the weather experts and SES should’ve just told us to evacuate.”

Meanwhile, residents of Casino Street, which was swamped, revealed their harrowing tales of flood survival in Lismore.

Justin Fields: “I stayed here to the peak, I managed to pop a few things up, it was like Tetris and saved a couple of things but pretty much lost everything.

“I am not sure exactly what time I left, but my eldest son in Currumbin phoned me and said, ‘look it is at 14ft it is going to get to 15ft so you need to get out’.

Justin Fields escaped in his boat, with his two dogs, but lost motorbikes and cars. Picture: Brendan Beirne/Media Mode

“My old man called me and said ‘Rocky Creek Dam is going to possibly break so it would be more water so you’ll possibly drown’.

“I flagged a boat down and me and my two dogs jumped in and off we went.

“I lost my two motorbikes and my two cars.

I am still sleeping here, I have been here for a week. I came back and started brooming and hosing, it was just a quagmire.

“I can’t smell so it doesn’t bother me.”

Gabrielle Diaz and with Jamie Lee Zorzo got out with Fabio the cat. Picture: Brendan Beirne/Media Mode

Gabrielle Diaz: “I was upstairs when the wall came down. It was in the early morning. The water was up to the upstairs window.

“I climbed onto the back roof. I pulled my dog out, a big staffy named Rollo.

“I came out onto the roof … and crawled along with Rollo, then my neighbour pulled his electrical cord from his antenna and I made a harness for (Rollo).

“All three cats were upstairs. When the water came in I checked the rooms to make sure they didn’t drown.

“I put one foot on his window awning and one in my guttering and threw my dog up to the roof. I jumped from that roof to the other roof and waited there for six hours.

“Eventually a boat came and picked me up and took me near Trinity High.”

Barbara Elliot returned to her home to find it completely inundated. Picture: Nicholas Rupolo

Barbara Elliot: “The water was up to my chest but we were still there ’til midday on Monday.

“I’m 72, I was standing up on the veranda with the flood waters rushing past.

“We were very lucky but we don’t remember a lot.

“The Fijian men were waiting down Ballina road, their big smiling faces were amazing to see and they got me on their shoulders into the bus.

“They were really lovely, thank God for them — they’ve come in to check on us in the evacuation centre.”

Sandie Clarke saved her dogs Monty and Bairley.

Sandie Clarke: “About 2am I saw the water was a few steps away from our front door, half an hour later it was level with the kitchen bench.

“(Hours later) I realised, ‘oh my God, the water is past my neck inside the bottom floor of the house, we have to take the dogs and swim to the front’.

“I took Bairley, who is about 40 kilos, and Monty (her dogs) and we ducked under and swam through the floodwater into the kitchen, got some breath and then ducked under again and reached the bedroom window.

“We were sitting there for a while before a man in a jetski helped us onto the roof.

“We saw a helicopter go by and an SES boat go by as we waited on the roof, when I saw that boat leave I reconciled that I was going to die.”

Originally published as Hell and high water: Tales of surviving the Lismore floods