Flood programs helping community become more disaster resilient

RESILIENT Lismore has repaired over 700 homes across the Northern Rivers since the 2022 flood and is now advocating for more funding to continue the program and help the community better prepare for a future flood event.

Resilient Lismore executive director Elly Bird said the Two Rooms Program grew in 2024 with assistance from the Reece Foundation and the delivery of a $5 million election pledge by Lismore MP Janelle Saffin.

It was a simple program that repaired the walls of two rooms in a flood-impacted home, providing safe accommodation for people who had no option but to return to their damaged properties.

“Through that program alone we have just clocked 100 bathroom repairs,” Ms Bird said.

“We do all sorts of housing restoration for people that can’t get assistance any other way.”

An estimated 15,000 homes were damaged across the Northern Rivers during the flood – 5000 were severely affected – and Ms Bird said many of them were not able to access funding.

“There’s a lot of people who miss out, were just trying to help those people,” she said.

“Some people are still living in really awful situations.

“We want to be able to continue delivering that program because we know how much it helps people.”

The organisation is now focusing on flood preparedness for the year ahead.

Its Disaster Ready Together Program, which brought a flood summit to the region in 2024, has received further funding until 2027, allowing it to focus on supporting community organisations to build their capacity and be better prepared for disasters.

Resilient Lismore is also working with the Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance to help the region be better prepared for a disaster by bringing together a network of community groups and organisations working in disaster resilience.

“There’s a lot of people trying to do similar things across the region, so it’s a way to learn from each other and share projects and approaches that work, so that if we ever have to experience a regional disaster like the one that we had in 2022, we’ll be better prepared to collaborate and work with each other,” Ms Bird said.

With the CSIRO’s flood report due in mid-2025 and the NSW Reconstruction Authority’s Disaster Adaptation Plan due in mid-2026, Ms Bird said: “It’s going to be an interesting 12 months”.