Communities claim the flooding emergency in the New South Wales Northern Rivers has exposed an over-reliance on volunteers that needs to be urgently addressed.
Authorities believe one woman has died in the disaster in Mullumbimby, north of Lismore.
There has been widespread damage to houses with almost 200 deemed uninhabitable, vehicles, and major infrastructure like roads destroyed, particularly in the surrounding hinterland where there have been large landslides.
The deputy Mayor of Byron Shire Council, Sarah Ndiaye, said the first 48 hours of the emergency was particularly challenging when the need for rescues and evacuations was highest.
She said a small number of local volunteers with the State Emergency Service (SES) worked tirelessly, but she believes they simply needed more help.
"In a situation like this, it's very hard when the lead agency, the SES, are a volunteer organisation and they have so few volunteers in this area," she told 7.30.
"They did an incredible job and they worked for seven days straight some of them, but having a volunteer organisation as the lead organisation that isn't properly resourced to do the job is problematic."
The NSW SES said in a statement it had received almost 400 requests for assistance in the Mullumbimby area and that they did conduct flood rescues, but that it was unsafe at times to do so.
"While members of the NSW SES sign up to protect their communities, they also need to consider their own safety first," the statement said.
"There were times where entering floodwaters was deemed unsafe by expert in-water rescue operators."
The NSW government has announced a review into the flood emergency.
In a statement, NSW's Minister for Emergency Services Steph Cooke said: "I welcome the review into this devastating flooding event and want to assure the community it will be carried out as quickly as possible."
Chaotic scenes at evacuation centre
As the floodwaters from the Brunswick River rose two weeks ago, people began seeking shelter at the Ex-Services Club.
Justin Ikstrums and his wife had been watching with concern as the water rose around their rental property and decided it was time to leave with their two children, who are nine and six.
They put them in wetsuits and waded out into the street.
"It [the water] was pretty much ... above our waist, and we grabbed a surfboard that the kids and us waded out on, and made it about 500 metres up the road," he said.
Justin and his family stayed overnight at the club with 300 other people.
He described the scene as chaotic.
"Not entirely organised, but in saying that, we were very happy to have a roof over our heads and get some food," he said.
"It didn't really feel like a very designated place, and it was up to the manager to organise everything."
Ms Ndiaye dropped into the club and ended up staying to provide help to their staff.
She said there were pregnant women, newborn babies, people with high needs, the elderly, and animals all present.
"I just came down to check if they were open and ended up, you know, doing whatever I could, constantly kind of expecting other people to arrive to help and no-one did," she said.
"We were calling out addresses that we'd heard from other people across the road to volunteers and the SES, for them to go and get them off their roofs."
Ms Ndiaye said SES personnel close to the club were flat out, and other people had to help.
"We only had two people working to try and evacuate the hundreds of people that needed to be evacuated and so a lot of other people stepped in," she said.
The SES did not answer questions about how many volunteers were available to assist when the flood emergency began.
In a statement, the SES said they utilised "not only their local fleet of boats, but assets from out of area, including those from partner emergency service agencies".
"There were a number of NSW RFS air assets ... deployed to respond to requests for assistance," the statement said.
"Response efforts were hampered by both the lack of communications in the area and the inclement weather impacting the flying conditions."
'Spontaneous' volunteers saved lives
A group of community volunteers including Ella Goninan were involved in an emergency response of their own.
It included organising rescues and evacuations, some of which were by private helicopter.
Other rescues were done by boat or by walking into flooded houses.
"We had to do that because the emergency services were not able to and did not have the capacity to respond quick enough, so those helicopters were going mostly in the first while to the upper valleys of the hills behind Mullumbimby," she told 7.30.
A 70-year-old woman is believed to have died in the nearby Upper Wilsons Creek after a landslide engulfed her house.
NSW Police says emergency services have suspended a search for the woman because it has been unable to locate her body despite using specialist equipment.
In a statement, the police said: "Police from Tweed/Byron Police District are liaising with the woman's family and the NSW Coroner."
The Australian Defence Force also rescued or evacuated 59 people by helicopter across the Northern Rivers region.
Two of those people were caught in a landslide at Upper Main Arm, where they were rescued by army reservists and paramedics.
The reservists found a man up to his neck surrounded by mud, trees and branches before getting him out.
Ms Ndiaye said that rescue was to be commended.
The department said in a statement severe and hazardous weather conditions did "on some occasions, prevent ADF helicopters and aircrew operating safely".
The department also said it delivered food supplies and transported people in the Mullumbimby area.
It has also sent 150 personnel to Mullumbimby including soldiers, engineers and reconnaissance specialists.
They have been involved in clean-up efforts in residential areas and at local schools.
Community effort has been 'non-stop'
The large community effort is continuing with people volunteering to remove debris and clean houses.
Ms Goninan estimates hundreds of people were involved in the volunteer effort.
"It's absolutely phenomenal and it's been non-stop and consistent since the beginning," she said.
Mr Ikstrums said there was significant damage when he returned to his rental property, including to their possessions.
"We lost basically everything on the ground — beds, all furniture, two cars," he said.
Mr Ikstrums believes the review of the flood emergency should include the need for improved evacuation warnings, consider how many additional resources to perform rescues were required, and look at the support provided at evacuation centres.
He said he felt lucky because his family has found somewhere to move and many of his neighbours suffered greater loss.
"A lot of people around here, these houses, they've had a lot higher water — most of them don't have insurance and it is not good at all," he said.
A recovery centre has been set up by Resilience NSW at the Civic Hall, taking over from the community members who provided the initial response there.
The centre provides face-to-face support which includes clean-up services, financial assistance, legal and insurance support, support for business owners and primary producers, and mental health and wellbeing services.
Resilience NSW said it would remain open as long as there was demand for its services.
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