Rescue, Recovery, Rebuild, Adapt and Prepare: responding to a humanitarian disaster

By Janelle Saffin MP State Member for Lismore

 I RECENTLY made a detailed submission to the independent 2022 NSW Flood Inquiry Commissioners Professor Mary O’Kane AC and Mick Fuller APM, copying in the Legislative Council Committee’s inquiry into the flood response as well.

I’ve stated to NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet that he must accept the recommendations the Commissioners’ Independent Inquiry makes sight unseen.

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Floods will happen again but preparedness is key.  We need to now create a model of adaption to disaster preparedness that addresses risk, structure and cognition that guides preparedness.  This requires skills, knowledge and attitude, and a total reorientation of how business is done.  The structure is hierarchical and it needs to be task oriented.  Everyone has a position but it is not clear who has a task, to put it in basic terms.  The framework described in the NSW Government’s own submission to the Legislative Council inquiry says it all.  Lots of framework but little else.

The word ‘unprecedented’ has been bandied about a lot and has become code for it was ‘unpredictable’. Therefore, ‘we could not have been prepared’. This is erroneous at best and an abrogation of responsibility at worst. NSW Government’s public agencies could have been better prepared, and part of that means working alongside the community so that our preparedness coalesces.

The people did prepare to be inundated according to the flood warnings officially received, but by the time the warning came that the flood was much larger than the 2017 flood, it was too late to do much, let alone evacuate.  People were trapped in their homes, in ceilings, on roofs and in the streets. Businesses that had lifted well above the flood warnings and earlier large flood levels were gutted.  Farmers lost massive amounts of stock, and soil, and suffered landslips as did many landholders and villages, cutting off access.

Tragically, five people lost their lives.

The agencies charged with rescue and recovery were barely prepared for ‘what was’ let alone ‘what if’.  The latter is a fundamental disaster preparedness principle. The tragedy that unfolded speaks to this. It was not within their contemplation. That is the NSW State Emergency Service, 000, and Resilience NSW, and therefore the NSW Government.

Locals with boats came out in droves to be told by the State Emergency Service not to enter the water, but thank God they ignored this exhortation, an edict without authority, that would have potentially led to more deaths. They acted to help save our lives. If preparing for ‘what if’ had been done, the State Emergency Service would have been able to utilise community rescue or our Tinnie Army as they are affectionately known.

There is a complete disconnect between what the NSW Government outlines its responsibilities are, how NSW Government’s public agencies carry out its responsibilities, and what happened here on the ground.

I make many recommendations in my submission but the NSW State Emergency Service must have a fundamental rethink about what their role is, what their resources are, and how to effect rescues. There needs to some overarching rescue body that focuses purely  on that and how to incorporate all resources, including community, and that is the role of the State Rescue Board of New South Wales, but not if Resilience NSW is at the helm.

The rescue was virtually a non-response, despite the wonderful efforts of local SES volunteers.

The catastrophic flood of 28 February 2022 decimated homes, businesses, farms, lands, rivers, and people’s state of being, only to be followed by the 30 March 2022 major flood. The magnitude of the impact is overwhelming, continuous and uncertain. It covers physical, economic, emotional and environmental.

The Northern Rivers requires a comprehensive flood recovery package if there is to be any hope for an estimated 14,500 internally displaced persons living in temporary housing, caravans or tents. Many of them were denied financial assistance after up to 4000 homes were deemed uninhabitable.

Thousands of inundated businesses are still boarded up across the region with proprietors and landlords pondering their futures. Thousands of employees are facing uncertainty and insecurity. I am told that an Economic assessment has been done but it is yet to see the light of day. That is wrong, as it should be in the public domain.

To move from these extreme conditions, we need to start the discussion on how Lismore will be reimagined and transformed into a city that is sustainable. Murwillumbah and other towns as well where needed. I like many have a great vision for the region’s rebuild but we need the plan and the infrastructure to support it.

We can and we must ‘build back better’, as I first stated to the Premier while we trudged around muddy streets in the immediate aftermath of the flood. I said that is the frame and we start there.

My full submission is expected to be published this week. Go to:

www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/listofcommittees/Pages/committee-details.aspx?pk=277