‘We can’t make plans to move forward’: Northern River residents brace themselves for months of recovery

Sandy Graham has grown up in flood zones her entire life, but she has never seen anything like the devastation of the past month.

She lost everything in the February floods, including her family photos. When the rains came for a second time, there wasn’t anything else to lose.

Sandy Graham and son Hudson Grande have been staying with her mother Anne since their home flooded last month. Credit: Natalie Grono

She now waits for insurance assessors to see if she will get any money. If denied, only then can she apply for a grant.

“We are just in no-mans land. We can’t make plans to move forward,” she said. “In the meantime, I am trying to keep things as normal as possible for the family.”

Ms Graham and her family are now staying with her mum in Ballina, but even there they haven’t escaped the recent floodwaters.

“Every time I hear the rain, I will it to stop. I am completely traumatised,” she said.

Residents in the flood-affected areas are beginning to turn their attention toward recovery, again. Ms Graham said the support of the community had been invaluable. “I used to really struggle to receive help from people and the help that has been given and support has overwhelmed me. I have learned to say thank you and yes.”

But Ms Graham said long-term support will be needed to help rebuild the community, with many suffering from mental health issues and homelessness.

“I have to rebuild a whole home and its contents... Sometimes the thought of it takes my breath away,” she said.

While the worst of the rains have passed, the threat of floodwaters will remain for the coming days. In Lismore, there were fears the city’s Wilsons River would reach 12 metres on Wednesday, but the flood reached just 11.4m at 5pm. After overtopping the levee for the second time this month, the river was at 10.25 by Thursday afternoon and was continuing to fall.

While rains have eased across the state, authorities are warning river systems will remain full over the coming days.Credit: Nick Moir

It comes as NSW Labor leader Chris Minns on Thursday said he remained concerned that evacuation orders were withdrawn in Lismore while the river continued to rise.

“I don’t know whether that was as a result of faulty gauges or incorrect information that was handed to the SES. But we can’t have this situation repeated,” he said.

“We need to make sure that the data and information that’s been received [by] decision-makers is accurate.” Mr Minns said it would be among issues explored in an upcoming upper house inquiry into the flood response.“We don’t want a repeat of what we’ve seen over the [past] 48 hours or over the [past] two months.”

NSW SES Acting Commissioner Daniel Austin has defended the decision to lift evacuation orders in Lismore’s CBD on Tuesday afternoon which were then reinstated hours later in the early hours of Wednesday. He said the decision to allow residents to return was made after the threat of waters topping the levee looked to have eased on Tuesday, but worsening conditions overnight saw the worst occur.

Lismore residents had only just started the recovery process will now have to begin again.Credit: Natalie Grono

“We do not have the joy of hindsight when predicting whether or not to lift those warnings. And at that point in time... I believe that call was the right call to make,” he said.

Acting Commissioner Austin said while they had received increased funding in recent years, they would never say no to more.

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Dean Narramore said low-pressure systems were dynamic and evolving, making it difficult to predict where they were going to hit. Meteorologists were “using five of the best models in the world” to predict the forecasts and said flooded warnings were issued as soon as the situation escalated.

The bureau expects Sydney, as well as areas in the Mid North Coast, Hunter, Illawarra and South Coast, will be the focus of the severe weather. Damaging wind gusts of around 100km/h are possible over parts of the state, while damaging surf and high tides will be experienced along the central and south coast.

There are 20 floods evacuation orders still in place across northern NSW, affecting around 27,000 people. On Thursday morning, evacuation orders remained in place for residents in parts of Lismore, Woodburn, Swan Bay, Broadwater, Wardell, Cabbage Tree Island, Bungawalbin, Coraki, New Italy, Brushgrove, Cowper, Ulmarra, North Macksville, Southgate, Lower Macleay River, Bellingen, Urunga CBD, Newry Island, Kyogle and Tumbulgum.

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