Flood victims wait in hope for future-proof solutions

West Australian

3 days ago

From the door of Mel Connell's gift shop, in shin-deep water, the only things still recognisable were a few hanging festoon and fairy lights.
After 14 years as a small retailer, she had to refashion her premises after floods ripped through the northern NSW town of Lismore in February 2022.
By September, Ms Connell had reopened with $50 in her pocket and an unfinished building. She was thousands more short in products and equipment.
Three years later, she still feels the impact.
"It's been an extremely hard slog, I'm never doing that again," Ms Connell tells AAP.
"I've got a business, my partner also has a job here, we've got a home loan. We can't just pack up and leave."
Every time it rains heavily, she "freaks out".
"People died here and we had a billion-dollar emergency, so I just wish the government would actually have some kind of plan in place to help us in the future."
Tensions are high across the state's mid north coast and Hunter regions with more than a thousand properties uninhabitable and dozens more beyond repair.
Insurance premiums have skyrocketed, with residents launching GoFundMe efforts to help salvage inundated homes.
The Fitzgerald family in Taree had to set one up after insurers declined to cover them after they were flooded for a first time.
"When the second flood struck, they were left with absolutely nothing," says campaign organiser Sharon Revell.
"To make matters even more heartbreaking, the boys recently lost their beloved mum to terminal cancer.
"Her passing has left three sons, one of whom lives with a disability, without their home, their stability and their mother."
Elsewhere, GoFundMe organisers say insurance premiums for another second-time victim jumped four times their original cost following NSW floods in March 2021.
About 1.36 million properties are at any time at risk of flooding across the state and in Victoria and Queensland, according to the Insurance Council of Australia.
In Lismore, Ms Connell wants to see infrastructure built to withstand future events after 2022 triggered an exodus of residents.
"People would reinvest into the town and not just our town, everywhere," she says.
"We've had eight years with floods, we're trying to get the town back on its feet and it would bring positivity back.
"It would be life-changing for a lot of people and having some kind of ... solution so they don't leave the postcode and can still purchase a property out of the flood zone would contribute to the economy here."
There may be light at the end of the tunnel for residents and business owners with the insurance council calling for government and the sector to establish a $30 billion dollar fund to protect flood-prone communities.
In a report issued prior to the federal election, it urged the building more flood defence infrastructure, buying-back properties and strengthening others in harm's way.
"There is a solution. It's going to be a public-private partnership between government and insurers," the council's executive director Andrew Hall told Sydney radio station 2GB this week.
"There are 220,000 homes on the east coast of Australia that are sitting in a two or five per cent chance of flooding every year.
"We've priced the de-risking of 24 catchments on the east coast over a period of 10 years."
However in Taree, a community which has been decimated by the recent floods, Mayor Claire Pontin says council looked at constructing higher levees but the cost outweighed the benefit.
"Had we built those levees back then, this flood would have gone over the top of them anyway," she says.
"All those issues about flood mitigation works to try and make our assets, and the community's assets, more resilient to flooding is on the table."
Inflated insurance premiums have become a recurring conversation with flood affected victims.
Last year, residents told of being forced to endure unreasonable wait times and being overcharged by insurers to an inquiry into flood failures.
One claimed to have been left in the lurch for 18 months.
"I am emotionally exhausted, I lost all my belongings," they said in a submission.
"I have tried to obtain online quotes from other insurers and they are either exorbitant or they refuse to insure in our area.
"We applied for a buyback of the property through the resilient homes fund but have been rejected, despite having six properties surrounding us that have been bought back and in the process of being demolished."
The NSW Department of Planning is in the throes of responding to inquiry recommendations following the 2022 floods.
"The government is stopping inappropriate developments on dangerous floodplains," according to a spokesperson.
"To proactively plan and mitigate against the impacts of floods in NSW, the Department is taking a risk-based approach to planning decisions on dangerous flood plains."
Queensland's Department of Infrastructure says it has been liaising with other agencies on policy.
"Key actions such as natural hazard mapping (has been) undertaken across the state and each local government area implements their own flood risk mapping tools for Queenslanders to utilise and check risk for personal safety and property," a spokesperson says.
"The department continues to work closely with various other agencies and local councils responsible for navigating the state's preparedness for natural hazards, risk and resilience, particularly when it comes to land use."
About 300,000 people lodged claims with insurance companies after the 2022 NSW floods, with the state and Commonwealth committing more than $3.5 billion for recovery.
Assistant federal treasurer Daniel Mulino says some insurers have been too slow to clean up devastated communities.
"(About) 90 to 95 per cent of claims are resolved within a year or so but that still leaves a very large number of claims hanging on," he this week told ABC Radio.
"We've seen in a number of instances, hundreds and sometimes thousands of people with still unresolved claims a year or even two years after the disaster."
Some 6000 people currently have claims lodged with the insurance council.
Applications opened on Friday for commonwealth-state payments to help cover costs for items including food, clothing, medication and emergency accommodation.