Flood Cleanup
BLAKE: Still on the Hastings River, still in major flood, I'll give you a look around. The debris has slowed down, but the things I've been seeing are really devastating.
For the last two weeks, Blake has been recording what he's seen around his hometown, Port Macquarie in New South Wales.
BLAKE: Major floods Just in comparison, where I'm standing is the 2021 flood. This is where it got up to, let me take you down to where it is right now.
Yep, floods aren't new to this part of this world. But the recent disaster that hit the hunter regions and the mid-north coast was devastating.
Noah here lives in Taree, where nearly half the homes were underwater last week.
JONATHAN, NOAH'S DAD: Got everyone out through the bedroom window and to the boat and made my way to the next-door neighbour and picked her up. She lives there by herself, and she was almost chest-deep in water.
Floodwater doesn't just make things wet, it's full of everything it picks up along the way, including dirt, sewage and chemicals. And it causes mold to grow, meaning a lot of things can't be salvaged even when they dry out.
BLAKE: So, we had to put some fridges away, like chuck fridges away because they all got broken and stuff. We've lost heaps of piles of my kayaks. Just basic stuff we've lost, but still a lot.
And it's not just homes that have been affected. The floods have hit business, and farms.
SAM, FARMER: No matter what we could have done, no matter how well we prepared, no one could have prepared for this.
This land is flat, which means there's nowhere for the water to flow naturally. And with the soil already soaked, it sits around and kills grass.
JAMES, FARMER: Everything's covered in silt and a lot of the pasture we've sown for the autumn, winter and spring is all dead, so we're gonna have no food at all.
Experts say the damage from these floods will be huge. Just repairing the roads alone is expected to cost around 2.5 billion dollars. Some people will be relying on insurance to help them rebuild. But as events like this become more frequent, insurance is becoming more expensive and not everyone can get it.
Last week the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, came to Taree to talk to locals.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PM: We are activating the Australian government disaster recovery payment, in nine government areas.
Right now, everyone is working together to clean up the damage. 70 members of the Australian Defence force have come to help out, along with more than 2,000 SES volunteers from around the country.
BLAKE: Moving a lot of mud. Cleaning up, getting new furniture in, cleaning everything, cleaning all the grass off because it was a big layer of mud. Getting his sand in cleaning boats. So now we've done all that and the volunteers have helped. So, now we're back up and running.
Many people aren't exactly sure what the next few weeks, months or even years of their life will look like, but they're trying to stay positive.
SAM: Seeing our cows still there, it gives us hope.
BLAKE: There's nothing we could do about it, but right now, we're on the other side, which is a better thing.
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