ELDERLY CHINDERAH park residents sat in the dark, some waist deep in floodwaters in shock, not knowing what to do, as flooding inundated eight parks last February which sit near the banks of the Tweed River. This was a recurrent memory from the tinny army volunteers who came to their rescue, but now, with the help of a donation of portable radios, they should never have to go through that trauma again.

The radios were presented to park residents at Homestead Holiday Park on Wednesday, May 24, by Mayor Chris Cherry and Red Cross Community Resilience Team (CRT) Officer Tammy Jones, who has been busy setting up CRTs around the north coast.

More than 40 UHF and VHF radios were purchased by the Australian Red Cross Emergency Service thanks to a $20,000 donation from the Together Tweed Mayoral Flood Appeal 2022 in the wake of last year’s flood.

Mayor Chris Cherry told The Weekly the donation from the appeal was a “passion project” for Council and the radios were one thing she wanted the community to have.

“The day before last year’s flood the Red Cross and Council were with the Byrrill Creek and Kunghur CRT looking at what they needed for communication in a future event because they were isolated in 2017,” the Mayor said.

“They actually had the radios in their hands (to see if they were suitable) but we took them back.

“It was a massive gap in 2022 and we wanted to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We wanted to see a direct impact in our communities to make sure they are safer for the next event. They can be used in any disaster.

“Today is the handover of the last portable radios and it’s just making sure these isolated communities can make sure each other are safe, com- municate important information and communicate with the SES, the RFS etc.

“It’s a really big step that the 26 Community Resilience Teams that the Red Cross has set up across the shire have that capacity and capability to be able to act themselves.”

Tammy Jones thanked Council for their support, “not only in providing these communication tools, but in recognising the important role of the Community-led Resilience Teams we have set up across the shire.”

“We are still providing support to so many community members who remain displaced and in need of help following last year’s flood, and believe these new Community-led Resilience Teams will do a lot to build resilience in the community moving forward,” she said.

Homestead Holiday Park Community Resilience Team (CRT) leaders Michelle Shaw and Lyn Tupaea started the CRT two months ago after Tammy came to see them.

“Now that we are a bit more involved, we understand we can’t wait for the SES or someone else to come and rescue us.

“We now have the awareness as a community to step up and educate ourselves on what to do in an emergency.

“There has been a big shift in our park — everyone is putting their hand up to help and we have identified skills we didn’t know we had before.

“We have four or five other residents helping us so it is going to be a huge help in future events.

“The radios will really help us. We

CONNECTED: Lyn Tupaea, Michelle Shaw, Mayor Chris Cherry, and Red Cross representatives Tammy Jones and Jasmin

had no communication last year and this will help us notify people what is going on.

“Michelle and I will get early warnings. Water takes about two days to come down (from the upper catchment of the Tweed River) so we can let people know, especially vulnerable

EARLY DETECTION MAY SAVE LIVES residents.

Tammy Kelso is a CRT team leader at Hacienda Holiday Park.

“Last time I got people to move their cars up near my place thinking it wouldn’t come up that far but it did, but now we are prepared,” she said.

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