![]() ![]() As we watched footage roll in of mass boat rescues the day before, I thought we would be extremely lucky if it was fewer than 40.īy some miracle of human courage and kindness it was far fewer than that.ĭays (or was it weeks?) later I was filming a local politician. ( ABC News: Gavin Coote)Īt that stage, we didn't know how many had died. My colleague bundled me and the sopping wet gear into the car and drove back to the office where I spent the next few hours on the phone to Mum assuring her the SES was coming, knowing full well they weren't, calling triple-0 and getting nowhere.Ĭalls to ABC radio from people stranded on roofs and in roof cavities were difficult listening. "Tell her to get onto the roof or into the roof cavity," they told me. ![]() They told me there was nothing they could do. I went into the SES base and asked for help. Just months earlier she had the house raised to 30 centimetres above the highest flood on record.Īt that point, I thought the water still had another 2 metres to rise, which would be over her head. She was alone in her house, trapped and water was starting to rise through the floorboards. That would easily top the disastrous flood I had experienced in 2017, which reached 11.59 metres. Just after my 6am cross to News Breakfast I found out my mum was trapped in rising flood water. Just minutes before my first cross at 6am, we learnt the forecast flood height had been increased to 14 metres. The flood water was already creeping worryingly close.Īs we were setting up, we watched the SES launch two boats into the flood water before a power outage cut the streetlights, throwing us into darkness. It was my job to do the morning TV crosses to ABC Breakfast and News Channel, so we packed the car and drove through torrential rain to the Lismore City SES base a short drive down the hill. I tried calling my mum, who lives in North Lismore - one of the most flood-prone areas - but my call went to voicemail. That's despite his house being above a one-in-100-year flood level. We would later learn the flood water stopped just shy of his ceiling. I called my brother, who lives in Lismore and found out he had evacuated and was safe up the hill. That day, in the early hours, my ABC North Coast colleagues and I rushed into work knowing the flood situation had taken a drastic turn for the worse.Īt that point, it was hard to fully grasp how serious the situation was, let alone how bad it would get. ![]()
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