The town of Lismore has re-emerged after more than 14 metres of floodwaters have finally subsided to reveal the long road to recovery ahead.
Derek Alford has already helped clean-up ten Lismore homes in two days.
Each morning his rapid assessment team consisting of Fire Rescue NSW firies pile into a vehicle and driven from home to home assessing the extent of damage.
Firefighters are performing “hose-outs” – lugging hoses used to extinguish flames into mud-logged homes and spraying high force jets of water onto floors, walls and ceilings.
Homes are caked with dirt and residue after being submerged under water for several days.
In one Lismore residence, the team discovered two urns belonging to the parents of the elderly homeowner who narrowly escaped waters that rose to just 30 centimetres below the ceiling.
“Some of [the houses] have got their furniture and belongings out the front,” Mr Alford said.
“Others are being walked into for the first time and are full of mud and smell of rotting food because the power’s been off”.
Most often homeowners are home while the emergency services clear out their destroyed belongings.
“They want someone to talk to, to express their frustrations and tell their story of survival,” he said of the raw emotion that has spilt out in his conversations over recent days.
“They are going through adrenaline at the moment and when that wears out despair kicks in”.
Many residents are still uncertain about whether or not they will have a home to come back to.
The Fire and Rescue team described seeing incredible structural damage with walls caving in on themselves, ceilings that need to be removed and in some cases rising sewage.
“We’re making sure that it’s not gonna collapse when we go inside but we’re used to running into burning buildings so we’re used to a risk of some sort,” Mr Alford said.
Getting power back into homes is another major issue confronting volunteers as they try to get locals home.
James Brasier, an electrician from Ballina piped up during a press conference with Dominic Perrottet on Thursday demanding more state government assistance to clear red tape preventing houses from getting plugged back in to the grid.
The major roadblock at the moment is completing compliance checks on flood damaged homes to ensure that it is safe to reconnect them to power.
“We would be able to do a thousand homes in a few days if the government can help co-ordinate the efforts,” said Mr Brasier whose company Powered Projects is trying to mobilise sparkies across the state.
He is worried that residents fearing the cost of hiring tradesmen might try to cut corners and put themselves in danger because money is tight.
“People are really worried about money at the moment,” Mr Brasier said.
“We want to get electricity back so that they can go home and start assessing and cleaning”.
On Friday morning, Derek Alford’s team were pulling into a rendezvous point in the town of Murwillumbah – one-hours drive north of Lismore.
The scenes they drove past were apocalyptic – the streets were quiet, curbs were lined with debris and the only cars were washed up in the tops of trees.
“With a bushfire it comes through and someone’s home can be gone in five minutes,” Mr Alford said.
“But with floods it hangs around for weeks and weeks before someone comes to help clear it away”.
It is a constant reminder for returning locals of the nightmare of the floods and makes their recovery all the more painful.
Photo-albums, jewellery, and urns were among the piles of water damaged belongings that spill onto residential streets.
Council efforts to clear the debris from curbs were slow given the massive scope of impacted homes.
Volunteers from all corners of the state have joined emergency serxjmtzywvice clean-up operations.
They demonstrate a spirit of generosity that has swept into devastated towns and helped to lighten the load on already exhausted locals.
“They are out there getting dirty with us and slapping on gumboots,” said Mr Alford of the out-of-towners that he has worked alongside this week.
Volunteer firefighters put in a heroic effort from right across the state and more boots are expected on the ground as the weekend arrives.
From Laurieton, Wingham, Woolgoolga and up from Sydney there are crews pitching in to get locals back home as quick as possible.
“We know people are doing it tough and we are glad that we can help to alleviate some of that load,” said Mr Alford.
