Five years after ‘the biggest flood in living memory’, our city once again lies in ruins

Lismore faces a long road to recovery, writes city councillor Elly Bird.

On the last day of summer, huge patches of ominous red and black were hovering on the rain radar as a large, slow-moving beast of a low-pressure system headed straight for Lismore.

We’d only just recovered from the ‘big one’ in 2017. I wondered how we would cope with another one so soon, but I tried to stay positive, hopeful it might somehow change course.