22-05-2025
Family rescued from Taree floods sought refuge on roof of their new home
Just hours after her family were airlifted from their roof with floodwaters swelling below, Seeanna Briscoe was preparing for another double shift at Taree Hospital.
"What else am I going to do?" she told the ABC.
It's all hands on deck at the hospital and that includes healthcare worker Ms Briscoe, who on Wednesday lost almost everything.
Her husband Troy, sons Jax and Cruz, her father Lawrence, their dogs and three baby chickens were winched to safety by a rescue helicopter as raging floods claimed their new Glenthorne home on Wednesday morning.
Ms Briscoe went to work the morning earlier thinking the incoming rain "was nothing like the 2021 floods".
By midday she would be trapped at the hospital with all roads around Taree flooded, her family stranded at home.
At 8pm the second level of their home began to flood. Troy swam through the garage to fetch life vests for the children and told them to pack a bag of clothes each.
Through Tuesday night the family would progressively move higher and higher up their three-level home.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Troy was told by emergency services to kick a hole in the roof and bring his family up above the house.
They were soon on the roof with the floodwaters lapping at their feet.
"[Troy] said, 'I don't think anyone is coming, I think we're gonna die'," she recalled her partner saying as the flooding intensified on Tuesday evening.
"I didn't know if my family would survive.
"I just kept telling him it would be daylight soon."
From the helicopter her family had the most devastating vantage point of all, watching as their belongings swept into the deluge that has battered the Mid North Coast this week.
Videos taken by the family showed the frightening moment as their home was slowly swallowed.
Other footage showed them pacing on the roof trying to get the attention of emergency services above.
PolAir rescued Ms Briscoe's teenage sons first.
They were eventually bussed to safety in Tuncurry while her husband and father were dropped to safety on a nearby verandah.
The family had been there just five months. Nothing they lost was insured and they are now homeless.
Ms Briscoe is helping flood victims in the hospital who have a raft of injuries, while her family finds refuge with different relatives.
She is sleeping in a makeshift wing of the hospital, holed up until the waters recede. She plans to continue working "to keep my mind off it".
When she can eventually leave she will have no home to go back to.
"Taree is an island now," Ms Briscoe said.
Treasured pictures, mementos, clothes, furniture, electronics and husband Troy's prized Harley Davidson motorbike are likely lost forever.
The family are just one story among the more than 300 people who were rescued from raging floodwaters that day.
"The kids' stuff is just stuff, at least they're alive," Ms Briscoe said.
"It's traumatising for everyone, my kids don't have a home and we're actually homeless."
On her double shift on Thursday afternoon, Ms Briscoe told the ABC she is preparing for another night sleeping at the hospital.
When she finishes she has no home to go to, with her family spread out across the Mid North Coast sleeping in spare rooms of loved ones.
Their only lifeline right now are the generous friends and family willing to lend a hand or with a crowdfunding campaign to help their attempts to rebuild their lives.
