In Lismore, it’s getting harder to tolerate climate inaction – and Morrison’s cowardly silence spoke volumes

NSW northern rivers residents respond to the prime minister’s arrival in flood-ravaged Lismore on Wednesday. Photograph: Yaya Stempler/The Guardian

This time was going to be different; we were prepared. I felt proud of us as I witnessed the entire Lismore CBD packing up, lifting things to above the 12.12m record, ready to brace for what happened just under five years ago. We all had a flood plan. We moved our cars higher up. But this time was different: it broke all records, and it’s broken our town.

A friend said to me as I plugged my phone into my emergency power pack, taking refuge in the roof cavity of my home in South Lismore: “Don’t worry mate, the army have arrived, shouldn’t be too long.”