Pam Cordery was always petite — but after spending two and a half hours on her Lismore roof to escape rising floodwater, the 81-year-old now weighs just 41 kilograms.
"It's not that I'm not eating or anything. It's just all the stress, I think, and just feeling that you're in limbo," Pam said.
Her home sits more than 12 metres above ground level.
She described how on February 28, her husband, Ian, clambered on top of a wheelie bin, lifted her onto his back and heaved her up to the roof.
He wasn't able to pull himself up so he remained standing on the bin for hours as the water rose up to his chin.
Pam says she contemplated death as she sat with her feet jammed into the gutter to stop herself sliding off.
The pair waited for two and half hours in the pouring rain before a passing boat stopped and took them to higher ground.
"It's just traumatic," she said.
Physical and psychological impacts
In the neighbouring suburb of Girards Hill, Ann Birkbeck and Robert Morton are also still dealing with the physical and psychological consequences of Lismore's worst flood on record.
Their home was inundated with water, forcing the pair to wade through armpit-high water, with Ann's walker floating beside them.
Ann developed an ulcer after her compression stockings were washed away with the rest of their possessions.
"It gets a bit sore after they dress it, for a couple of hours," she said.
Her partner, Robert, said he still becomes upset when he thinks about what happened.
"It took a while to sort of talk to people about it without crying — and it takes a lot to make me cry," he said.
Insurance delays adding to stress
Robert owns six properties across the Lismore region, several of which are uninsured.
Like many in Lismore, he's spent hours of his time online and on the phone, dealing with claims and applying for state government grants.
"It's become sort of a nightmare and the insurance companies don't help much," he said.
He's received some payouts but is waiting for assessments to be made about his level of coverage.
"The front of the policy says, 'We settle our claims quickly'. Well, after three months, you'd think quickly would be bloody up, wouldn't you?" he asked.
To add to the stress, Robert says the reliance on technology means elderly people have been hit the hardest by this crisis.
"If you haven't got a computer and [you're] not computer literate, you've got to find someone [who] is, [who] can help you fill it out," he said.
'Catastrophic impact' on elderly people
Even before the floods, geriatrician Rachel Jones said her patients were experiencing weight loss, anxiety and prolonged depressed moods because of the pandemic.
These health impacts have been exacerbated by the February disaster.
"The impact of this flood has been catastrophic for the local residents," Dr Jones said.
"So many of these people have really significant grief and loss, and this is having huge impacts on their ability to maintain their functional independence at home.
"They're not wanting to go out and do things as they usually would and, again, this can lead to prolonged depressed moods and, in many respects, can increase the risk of entering residential care much earlier than what would have been previously expected," she added.
Dr Jones said many of Lismore's elderly people still lived in temporary accommodation, or with family, making it difficult for care to be delivered at home.
"These are very vulnerable members of our community and I think we really need to shine a light on that," she said.
Despite everything, Pam remains optimistic.
"[I] still get up every day and just think when the sun comes up … 'Wow, it's so wonderful to be alive'," she said.
"Because, when you face death like that, it's a reality that you didn't think you'd ever have to face."
