Lismore Floodings: "All I've Got Left Is My Passport"
“I’m in South Lismore and it’s completely gone. In my house, all my furniture has been destroyed, my beds gone, my clothing’s all wet, the carpets caked in mud, the walls are sweating”
When Analia Tamamoka Hedley moved to Australia two years ago to live and work, she was greeted by smoke in the sky from the Australian bush fires.
Shortly after settling into her new life in Lismore, northeastern New South Wales, the world shut down with Covid. Today she went home to find everything she owns has been destroyed in the flooding that has overwhelmed Lismore and other parts of Queensland & NSW.
“Things come in threes right? So this has to be it, that’s enough now, I’ve had enough” she laughs
Analia who is of Niuean heritage and born & bred in New Zealand, said the first she heard about evacuating was from the SES (State Emergency Services) at about 4.30pm on Sunday.
“Someone had sent me a screenshot of a message from SES and so before I left I tidied my kitchen. People had told me that it’d only come up to the first floor”
She didn’t take anything with her thinking that the flooding would be similar to the 2017 floods. She’d heard that many Lismore residents had stayed in their homes so that as soon as the water subsided they could start cleaning their houses.
“When I was leaving, my neighbor was just sitting on his back porch smoking a cigarette, reading his paper like normal you know?
I have a feeling that most people around here thought that it was going to be like the 2017 floods which only reached the first floor. It’s taken a lot of people by surprise” she said
Leaving Lismore on Sunday afternoon she drove to her sister's place who lives in another town about 40 minutes away on a bit of a hill.
As Analia left she noticed that her street was really quiet and no-one else was leaving but thankfully she didn’t let this deter her because she didn’t want to risk even being in a foot of water.
The floods hit Lismore between midnight and 4am on Monday morning. Analia found out later her work mate who lives down the road from her had to be rescued from his roof and he lives in a double storey home as well.
“I’m in South Lismore and it’s completely gone. I was only able to get back into my house a couple of hours ago”
“In my house, all my furniture has been destroyed, my beds gone, my clothing’s all wet, the carpets caked in mud, the walls are sweating and one of the window panes is gone.
Luckily my passport was floating around in a box so it’s dry and honestly it’s the only thing I really want so I know I can go home (to New Zealand) if need be, there’ll be no problem with that. So, I have my passport and I feel better!” Analia added
Immediately after the flooding, community groups rallied and came together with a lot of people in their own boats going out to rescue people stranded. Many were communicating via community facebook groups.
Analia said she’s heard stories about the Fijian and Samoan boys who had come over to work on a work exchange type programme being a huge help to the community.
The Fijians made global news after they helped rescue 60 residents in a Lismore aged care facility on Monday.
There is an evacuation center up on the hill who have been giving away free food and the Sikh community sent up a van full of cooks and food.
“I’ve got other family here in Brisbane and they want to come down and help obviously being a good, Niuean family but it’s no point having people down here in an area where there’s no food as is, you know?”
Analia is also thankful that she has a sister close by and her parents were just about to move to Lismore. They put in a deposit on a house on Friday.
“The rental situation here is already pretty bad and now we’ve just lost whole suburbs so I’m lucky I have a place to go, but there’ll be so many people who will walk out with just nothing.”
With the future uncertain and many people having lost their homes, for now, Analia and the people of Lismore are just doing their best to keep their heads above water.
If you would like to donate to help Analia's recovery, her friend has set up a Give a Little page. Link below:
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/lias-lismore-home-flooded
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9News has also put together Info on how you can help with the flood crisis in Queensland and NSW in the link below
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