The man in charge of coordinating the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) response to the catastrophic floods in northern NSW has apologised to those who felt abandoned as their calls for help went unanswered.
"I am very sorry for all those people who have felt that they haven't been supported and I empathise completely with their plight," national commander of the joint task force Major General David Thomae said.
In his first public comments since the floods hit more than a week ago, he acknowledged the loss of life in the state's north and said his priority now to was to reach isolated communities and to help with the clean-up in major centres such as Lismore.
As he spoke, around 120 ADF personnel were on their way to the small towns of Coraki, Woodburn and Bora Ridge, which have been cut off for more than a week.
Hundreds more troops and heavy equipment as well as helicopters, including two sent by Singapore, are due to land in the coming days.
But many in the state's north are questioning why it has taken so long for help to arrive.
Major General Thomae said the ADF was on the ground from day one, with reserve soldiers who live in Lismore responding to a call for help.
"When Lismore needed the Australian Defence Force, they didn't have to come to Sydney, they went to their local reserve unit and 41st Battalion immediately supported that local community," he said.
As the flood emergency shifted from south-east Queensland to northern New South Wales, four ADF helicopters that had been flying rescue missions in Queensland's floods were moved south.
In the coming week, they would carry out 71 rescues, plucking more than 100 people to safety.
"What I can say is, from an ADF perspective, we have thrown the resources we had available immediately to respond and that has saved lives," Major General Thomae said.
But at the height of the flood emergency, as hundreds of people were stranded on rooftops calling for help, the weather conditions were judged to be too dangerous for the aircraft to take to the skies.
From his headquarters in Randwick in Sydney, the national commander of the ADF task force defended the decision.
"The scale of devastation is extraordinary in that area, we had been operating within the weather conditions that allow us to safely operate," Major General Thomae said.
"I think we have done all that we can within the conditions we have been faced with, so as conditions have improved, we have, and it's great to see other community members supporting their community.
"It's not just an ADF response, it's a local government, it's local emergency services, who have worked very hard over the last weeks."
At around the same time as the ADF grounded its helicopters, the SES in Lismore suspended rescue operations by boat, declaring the flood waters too hazardous to risk the lives of its volunteers.
Residents whose desperate calls to triple-0 were going unheeded soon realised they were on their own.
Their only hope of being rescued lay with their neighbours, some of whom set out in tinnies and kayaks, ferrying dozens to safety throughout the night.
Major General Thomae said there were lessons to be learned from the traumatic stories emerging from Lismore.
"I think that's something for us to look at afterwards, to see what we could do better," he said.
"I think it's important to acknowledge [that] whether it's the local community who went out to do rescues or the SES, they all put themselves in extremely difficult and dangerous circumstances and we should all be grateful for what they've done."
Army personnel have now landed in the small town of Coraki, which had been cut off for days and was fast running out of food, fuel and drinking water.
The task force commander said even with the ADF's resources, reaching communities like this has been a challenge.
"Most of those communities were cut off up until the weekend, so it was very difficult to get land access to those places," he said.
"But we have been pushing into those places as much as we can since the start of the flood event and we will continue to do so."
With the ADF increasingly being called on to respond to floods, bushfires and even the COVID-19 pandemic, Major General Thomae is confident it is as prepared as it can be.
"Our core skills provide a level of training that allows us to respond to domestic circumstances — since bushfires in 2019 until today, the ADF has been supporting the community," he said.
