Editorial: It’s the response that matters

We can’t escape extreme weather events, but it is how we respond as a community that matters and Tasmania showed again yesterday that as a community we remain strong.

Water from flooded paddocks pours back into the Lachlan River near Hobart Rd at New Norfolk. Picture: DAMIAN BESTER

IN some respects at least, we were lucky. We were lucky Friday morning’s superstorm hit in the middle of the night, when almost nobody was on the roads as Hobart’s rivulets suddenly and dramatically burst their banks as the water from the record downpour on the mountain surged towards the river. Had it happened at peak hour, one can only imagine the potential impact in terms of lives put at risk.

MORE: SUDDENLY, THE CITY WAS AWASH

That being said, our capital city woke yesterday battered and bruised. As thousands of bleary-eyed Hobartians turned to themercury.com.au to see the images captured overnight of city streets inundated and to watch in awe the astounding videos of floodwaters surging through residences and businesses, hundreds more were already starting the deeply emotional — and physically demanding — task of cleaning up after a flood.

People like Julia Ridgers, who late on Thursday night had been mopping up what she thought was some minor flooding at her Brookfield Shed at Margate, when “all of a sudden we heard a huge noise and this wall of water came crashing through. It came from three directions. The bank behind the building broke first so we ran to the front, then water from the pipes on the street came in, then the river.” Yesterday, after the waters receded, there was a mud line five feet up the walls. Her business? Destroyed, at least for now.

Or how about Matt Hastings, back in town at South Hobart. He looked out the window late on Thursday to see “wheelie bins floating past — and then cars were coming down the road”. Just around the corner was Patrick Barnes. All his possessions were yesterday covered in mud: “Everything’s gone.”

Our thoughts are with Julia, Matt and Patrick — and with the hundreds of other people whose lives have been so unexpectedly upturned by yesterday’s extreme weather event.

Our thanks are also owed to the emergency services and council workers who toiled through the night in the most trying of conditions — and to the volunteers who added to their ranks to ensure those who needed assistance were given it. We also recognise Wayne Whiting, who at midnight waded into waist-deep flowing water at Lenah Valley to free a couple trapped in their car on a flooded road just before their vehicle was washed away. Mate, you deserve a medal — as do the crew of the Westpac rescue helicopter who saved a teenage boy in New Norfolk yesterday afternoon.

It is at times like this that the very best of our tight-knit community is on show. And most of the best will never be known, except to those who benefit. So thank you also to those many hundreds of people who — in their own ways — lent a helping hand to those in need yesterday. To those who gave up a spare room so their flooded neighbours could sleep last night. To those who turned up at a friend’s house with shovels and mops. To all of those whose compassion for their fellow Tasmanians moved them to action: well done.

We can’t escape extreme weather events. That’s life. Be they fires or floods, they are inevitable. But it is how we respond as a community that matters. And Tasmania showed again yesterday that as a community we remain strong.