Editorial - ‘Fire and Rain’ on the roof and wait. If you’re confident you crack open a case of Tooheys.
Fire and Rain “… Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus? You’ve got to help me make a stand You’ve just got to see me through another day
This was different. The flood was fast and furious, wreaking havoc far and wide on houses and businesses thought to be above the highest flood level. It was an ‘unprecedented’ disaster (and subsequently declared a national disaster by the prime minister) with some people losing their lives and many their personal history and memorabilia. For so many their belongings were literally washed down the river.
David Guest - Clinical Editor Lismore looked like a war zone:hundreds in the emergency centres, tears and fears for loved ones and many examples of heroism.
My body’s aching and my time is at hand And I won’t make it any other way
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain ...”
Mrs A stood chest deep in water from midnight to 4.00 pm the next day when the family finally convinced someone to look for her. A young man on his kayak found her and organised the rescue boat. Mr B, aged 90, was able to get up into the ceiling space as the waters rose. Mrs B was too weak to get through the manhole and stood on the table in the water. They were both found alive, badly shaken, but alive. Mr C got on the bed with the dog and waited. If the water got above the windowsill they would drown. It only got to the power point. Mr D lost his accommodation in North Lismore. He worked without a break at the Southern Cross University emergency centre for 10 days and then asked staff if he could borrow a clipper so he could go off somewhere private and cut his toenails.
When it was installed people joked that Lismore’s ‘ark’ wouldn’t repel floodwater. It didn’t, nor did the flood levee built at far greater cost.
Ms E got water under the house. She was cleaning up with friends when she collapsed and could not be resuscitated. She was dead on arrival at Lismore Base Hospital. There are thousands of such stories from the Lismore flood of 2022, ranging from the banal to the tragic, all demonstrating the responses of a community thrown into chaos by a natural disaster. Lismore knows floods. You pack up your stuff and put it above the once-legendary 1974 flood level, the heights of which were marked by plaques on lamp-posts and buildings around the city. Then you get up NorDocs | 3
