The 2021 Floodings

Erica Longhurst - University of New South Wales (V)

The recent floods in New South Wales showed us that, more than ever, we must brace ourselves for unexpected environmental events.

In Port Macquarie, a multitude of events over the last year-and-a-half have been described as ‘unprecedented’ or ‘devastating’ — be it the 2019 droughts, the bushfires, the pandemic, or now, the floods. In the face of these climaterelated disasters, it therefore seems just that we look to ‘A New Frontier’ to protect the interests and health of rural Australians.

Our beautiful country is no stranger to extreme and adverse weather events. We are, after all, the land of ‘fire and flood’. There is no denying, however, the increased frequency and severity of these once freak weather events. The MidNorth Coast was one of the most affected regions in the 2021 floods. The flooding began around the middle of March, and affected everywhere from the North Coast to the City of Sydney. It was described by Gladys Berejiklian, the Premier of New South Wales, as a ‘one in a hundred year event’, and ‘the worst flooding in 60 years.’ Communities in Queensland and Victoria were also affected by heavy rainfall as well. The Australian Government declared many parts of the East Coast as a natural disaster zone. Over 18,000 people were forced to evacuate, and over a thousand required flood rescue1. This event occurred less than 18 months after Australia was affected by the ‘Black Summer’ fires of 2019. Unfortunately, a lot of towns that were just starting to recover from the bushfires were hit.

In my area of the Mid-North Coast, there was a series of mind-boggling events throughout the middle of March. Amongst others, a house was seen floating adrift down the Manning River in Taree, and a bride and groom had to be helicoptered out of Wingham to attend their own wedding. So many different events occurred all around the region, and everyone was affected in unique ways. I have been on medical placement at Port Macquarie, and was on my Paediatrics placement at the time. In my fourth week, I did a newborn check on a baby girl with lovely parents. This little girl’s ‘baby check,’ which should be performed within the first 72 hours of life, was delayed by six days. This was because they had been completely isolated from their house, and had to stay at a hotel in Wauchope. It was tough to think that only a few days prior to this young girl’s birth, the father had been trying to salvage valuables from their flooding house. When I chatted with them, they said that their baby was a gift, and that having her was worth all that they had been through. This really affected me as they were such a young family. They lived out on a farm, and so their entire crop was flooded, and their livelihood ruined. Although floods aren’t foreign to this region, this was something that no one had ever seen before.

Other stories popped up from around the hospital. As I talked with my fellow students, I learned there was a platelet shortage, as the plane transporting replenishments couldn’t land on the flooded runway. The wards were ‘flooded’ with patients, with some people having no viable home to return to. This particularly affected patients in the Mental Health ward, where extended stays were associated with increased distress. Patients were also arriving with very delayed clinical presentations, as a result of being trapped by the flooding.

1. Emma Elsworthy. NSW flooding forces 18,000 people to evacuate, schools closed, workers told to stay home [Internet]. [place unknown]: Australian Broadcasting Corporation; 2021 [updated 2021; cited 2021 May 16]. Available from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/202103-22/nsw-flooding-forces-evacuations-and-schoolclosures/13266072

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels

Living in Port Macquarie and watching this unfold was devastating. Driving through town, so many places I frequently saw, like Settlement Point and the North Shore, were submerged. Friends lost their cars and belongings overnight. There are insidious mental and physical effects that come with these environmental extremes. In natural disasters, the people who are most devastatingly affected are those already suffering from disadvantage. A study of Lismore, after Cyclone Debbie in 2017, showed that 80% of individuals whose residences were affected were part of the lower socioeconomic group2. These individuals already had poor access to healthcare, were at a financial disadvantage, and often had pre-existing mental health burdens. For them, natural disasters aren’t so easy to recover from.

One of the most important medical impacts of flooding is the mental effect. In Lismore, after Debbie, a chaplaincy program was implemented to provide emotional and psychological support to small business owners. Similar services would undoubtedly still be of use in Port Macquarie and the areas of Sydney that were affected by recent events. The mental health effects of flooding are compounded by a huge amount of financial instability. A lot of the worst affected individuals were farmers, who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Food shortages also occurred, and wholesale prices were driven up, highlighting how these disasters can also impact the whole country. In the aftermath, there have also been increases in homelessness. Driving through Camden Haven you could, and still can, observe water damaged items strewn out across the lawns of damaged houses.

This seems like a huge burden for us to carry as we go forth as a country. It has, though, been really incredible to see the amount of support offered to the Port Macquarie community. Despite everyone being affected in some way, there have been so many people who have stepped up, helping supply food and remove debris from their land and homes. There have been so many generous acts. The SES, Police and RFS collaborated on an amazing outreach program to reach those cut off by the flooding. It is incredible that the government was able to send a thousand extra personnel to help with the clean-up. Now, as you drive past the beaches of Port Macquarie, there is a dramatic improvement. Tourists are back and exploring the town as before, boosting the local economy.

Port Macquarie Town Beach covered in debris, a few days after the floods.

So what can we do in the future?

The sad reality is that as the effects of climate change become more apparent, these extreme weather events will become increasingly common. This is the ‘New Frontier’ for rural health. The fires that we’ve seen, the devastating floods — it raises the question, what awaits us in 2022?

One of the most important things we can do is to increase preparedness. We need to have both home evacuation and flood plans. A flood plan may still be a very foreign concept, as opposed to more familiar bushfire contingencies, but recent events demonstrate how important they can be. Other ways to offer support include donating to volunteer services, such as the SES and Rural Fire Brigade. These organisations have really stepped up and done amazing things. It is also critical that we campaign the government to try and eliminate some of the environmental risks that we have. It’s not a problem in one year, or 10 years, that we will have to face. Climate change is affecting us: right here, right now.