We are told from a young age that in a life-threatening situation, we should call triple zero and help will come.
But for hundreds, if not thousands, of northern New South Wales residents, their desperate pleas for help at the height of the floods went unanswered.
Those who still had a dry phone and service to call triple zero were told via a recorded message:
"Emergency Triple Zero in New South Wales is extremely busy due to extreme weather conditions. If you require Police, Fire or Ambulance attendance please stay on the line. For State Emergency Service call 132 500, for non-emergency police assistance call 131 444."
But when they rang the SES number, they were met with another recorded message telling them they would receive a call-back.
For the majority, that vital call-back took several hours, even days.
Communications and Security Commander for the New South Wales Police, Assistant Commissioner Stacey Maloney, said the number of emergency calls received on the morning of Monday, February 28, exceeded any other date on record.
She said the recorded message was played on connection to triple zero to "facilitate a timely response to calls from people requiring emergency assistance".
The SES admitted it was completely over-run, with 374 calls for help in just 30 minutes on Monday morning, and volunteers had to prioritise requests.
By the following day, there had been an estimated 2,000 calls for assistance across the Northern Rivers.
Calls for inquiry into handling of triple zero calls
The State Member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin, was one of the many residents whose calls for help at the peak of the floods went unanswered.
"That was terrifying for people," she said.
Ms Saffin said there needed to be answers about what went wrong to ensure there is not a repeat in future disasters.
"Can you imagine being in a house, in an attic, on a roof, ringing – if you could – and either being cut-off, not getting through, being diverted, that would be just the most terrible feeling," she said.
Few in the region doubt the death toll would have been catastrophic had it not been for the heroic efforts of civilians in their tinnies, kayaks and jet skis.
After her own rescue, Lismore resident Sally Flannery used social media to collect hundreds of messages for help, that were then triaged and published online to inform the rescue effort.
Vital lifeline lost for days
Outside of Lismore, entire communities were left in complete communication isolation for days, unable to even make calls to triple zero.
In Coraki, south-east of Casino, Dominique Sorrensen had nine people in her house when they were trapped by rapidly rising floodwaters, and all electricity, phone and internet services were lost.
Ms Sorrensen said they were trapped in the house for about 24 hours with no communication before they were rescued by a passing boat.
She said it was terrifying not knowing when or if they would get rescued, and even when they were evacuated to town, communications were still limited.
"One of my son's friends had a missing persons out for her because her parents hadn't been able to get in contact with her, so that was pretty distressing to know that they were all worried and we couldn't do anything," Ms Sorrensen said.
Telcos say damage to infrastructure unprecedented
Telstra Regional General Manager Michael Marom said there were contingency plans in place for most scenarios, however the unprecedented scale of the recent disaster put an "enormous strain on infrastructure".
Mr Marom said washed out roads, collapsed bridges and landslides severed cables and fibres and created access issues to restore services.
Mr Marom said there were satellite services available, however the majority of mobile and internet networks relied on land-based infrastructure.
“All of the mobile network and the NBN and landline are supported by terrestrial network and if any of them are damaged that then causes an issue down the [transmission] track," he said.
At the peak of the floods around 83,000 NBN internet services were impacted, the vast majority (75,000) caused by power outages.
The remainder were the result of infrastructure damaged from landslides and flooding, which affected between 1000 and 2000 services each.
The most significant incident was a power outage at the Woodburn Fibre Access Node, which affected 56,500 services from March 2 to March 6.
Many were in populous suburbs like Tweed Heads, Kingscliff, Byron Bay, Ballina, Lennox Head and Evans Head.
A NBN spokesperson said flooding meant the site was inaccessible and it was several days before power could be restored.
Satellites offer crucial lifeline for cut-off communities
In Upper Wilsons Creek, west of Mullumbimby, residents took it upon themselves to restore critical communications by connecting two-way radios to a satellite dish, trekked in on foot.
Fraser Walker said he realised the lack of communications was creating life or death situations when he tried to deliver insulin to an isolated family, only to learn they had travelled in the opposite direction to collect the medication from the community centre, because they were unsure if it would be delivered.
Mr Walker bought a satellite so he could work from home during the pandemic, but knew it would be more useful to cut-off communities.
"All that community needed was for one house to have an outside link to get urgent messages out," he said.
Mr Walker said they went on to provide critical communications to a number of cut-off communities by delivering one satellite to a community centre or hub, which could be used alongside two-way radios to keep everyone in contact within a five-kilometre radius.
Calls for satellite services in natural disasters
Australia's peak telecommunications advocacy group has been calling for additional funding to ensure that all evacuation centres and fire services have satellite connections that be used for critical communications during a natural disaster.
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has also been calling for telecommunications to be recognised as an essential services in legislation nationally.
"If these natural disasters do emerge in future, and let's face it – they will come again – then we can get the telecommunications infrastructure prioritised as part of the emergency services plan to get sites restored as quickly as possible," ACCAN's Acting Chief Executive Officer Andrew Williams said.
The recommendations formed part of the advocacy group's submission to the 2021 Regional Telecommunications Review, which looked at the adequacy of telecommunications services in regional, rural and remote Australia.
The review recommended the government commits to a substantial Regional Telecommunications Resilience fund, aimed at improving network resilience across communities vulnerable to natural disasters.
The report contained a dozen key recommendations and was delivered to the Regional Telecommunications Minister Senator Bridget McKenzie in December last year.
In a statement, Senator McKenzie's office said "the Government is currently preparing its response to the Review Committee's recommendations for delivery in the coming weeks".
