HEADLINE: FLOOD AFFECTED RESIDENTS SAY THEY’RE NOT WAITING TO BE RESCUED AGAIN

By Sarah Waters

CHINDERAH residents Lyn Tupaea and Michelle Shaw have taken on the role of co-leaders for the Community-led Resilience Team (CRT) at Homestead Holiday Park.

Both ladies were impacted by the February 2022 Tweed floods and decided it was up to them to ensure their own safety.

Advertisements

Ms Tupaea has happily lived at Homestead Holiday Park next to the Tweed River on Chinderah Bay Drive for six years.

But after the 2022 flood, she was displaced for four months.

Her home was six houses back from the river’s edge, but when the river burst its banks, water went right through it and left it uninhabitable.

Initially she was re-located to the Kingscliff TAFE Evacuation Centre, but a few days later, she had to live between hotels and holiday accommodation until her home was repaired.

Because it was Easter and school holidays a lot of the accommodation had already been prebooked.

She often found herself scrambling to find somewhere to sleep for the night.

The accommodation, she was able to find and stay in during the four months, cost her $18,000.

As the same time, she was trying get her home clean and repaired so she could eventually return to it.

Both her cars were written off too.

Ms Tupaea said there were people who experienced far worse than her, but she certainly does not want to relive the experience again.

“We need to be prepared for next time,” Ms Tupaea said.

“Now we’ve joined the Community-led Resilience Team (CRT) we’re linked up to the SES and the rural fire brigade and if there’s a big amount of water coming down, they’ll notify us.

“In the floods last time we had no communications, they went down, and we were completely cut off.

“Now the Community-led Resilience Team people will be able to contact people at risk – contact people on oxygen and people who are in wheelchairs and get them out sooner.

“Last time it happened so quickly, and we weren’t prepared at all.

“We’ve all thought we can’t sit back and just wait for someone to come and save us.

“By having the portable radios (purchased by Australian Red Cross Emergency Service) it’s going to be a big help.”

Ms Tupaea said the Community-led Resilience Team was like a Neighbourhood Watch group and it has allowed residents to become involved and educate themselves on what to do in an emergency.

She said there had been a ‘big shift’ at the holiday park and everyone had put their hand up to help.

“We have identified skills we didn’t know we had before.

“The more we are able to help ourselves, the better it is for the future.”

Fellow resident and Community-led Resilience Team co-leader Michelle Shaw has lived at the Homestead Holiday Park for 11 years.

Ms Shaw said she had never seen the park flood before 2022.

“It went up over the barbeque, all the big, heavy (outdoor) chairs ended up in the river,” Ms Shaw said.

“The water went up to my second step, our sheds and storage shed were covered in mud.”

Ms Shaw said she got off relatively lightly compared to other residents at the holiday park.

But, when the flood water first came through the park, she was ‘very scared.’

“The one thing I did find traumatic was when we tried to get out – we got the notice late from the SES and the water was already coming up (to about knee height) and we couldn’t get out.

“Local volunteers in boats and jet skis came to get us out – before that I was panicking because we were trapped, we didn’t know what to do.”

Ms Shaw said the Community-led Resilience Team has allowed residents to formulate a plan for future evacuations.