Lismore unites in the face of another weather event

LISMORE residents spent the week bracing for ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and the possibility of major flooding.

The Wilsons River in Lismore peaked at 9.31 metres at 3:30 pm on Saturday, March 8, causing moderate flooding.

While the levee held, sparing the CBD, low-lying areas experienced flash flooding. Evacuation orders have now been lifted, and residents and business owners have begun the arduous task of unpacking homes and businesses.

Juno Café owner Reilly Fitzalan said his business was among those forced to evacuate.

“We had a fair look at what was likely to transpire, and we made the decision Tuesday morning that we’d shut up shop and close the business that day.” Fitzalan said.

“There’s the obvious loss of income and trade for the days that we close both pre and post the event and then there’s the loss of wages for our staff as well.

“So, there’s the ripple effects for our community here at Juno, but you know for the most part we’ve come out unscathed considering what it looked like it could have been at the start of the event.

“It’s definitely been best case scenario.”

Fitzalan said while the event caused stress, it also reinforced the region’s strong sense of community.

“There’s always a sense of community and excitement when these events happen, that’s not to downplay the seriousness or how things could have turned out, but it does bring people together, these extraordinary circumstances, so there was that.”

“There was also a lot of anxiety for sure given how recent it was to the last major flood event, but you know I like to think that this generally brings out the best of people and the things you kind of look for when you decide to live in regional Australia, is that tight knit community and there was definitely a lot of that on display” Artist and business owner Kate Stroud, who operates a shared studio in East Lismore with four other artists, said they enacted their flood plan early last week.

“More than half of us live outside of Lismore and more than half of us will get cut off in major weather events,” Stroud said.

“I am still stuck at my property because some of the causeways have been washed out as a result of the huge amount of rain that was dumped into our region.”

“I had to make a decision quite early, so I actually started packing down my studio (my business) in Lismore on Monday and by Tuesday afternoon, I was completely packed up and evacuated from that studio.

“I then came home that night and I haven’t been out since so for me preparedness was absolutely key in this event.”

Stroud lived and worked in Lismore during the 2022 floods and said the community’s response this time was noticeably different.

“I believe that we have a very hard-earned wisdom and because of that the preparedness was incredible,” she said.

“We live a very modular way of being in the flood zone and by that, I mean that everything is either easily packable or it is on wheels or is actually just a flood mitigated piece of furniture.”This time you know the whole CBD or flood low-lying areas was evacuated well before this event hit and the difference between this and the 2022 event was that we actually had warning, we had time to prepare, and we also had things in place.

“That makes the evacuation or pack up procedure a lot more streamlined.

“My studio had had a flood preparation meeting just two weeks before this event.

“We had no idea that we would be enacting it so soon, but that just goes to show that it’s really important to have these procedures in place.”

BY EVANNA KELLY