Flood Recovery Update

24 April 2017

Summary of Recovery Phase Progress

As Council begins the recovery phase of the aftermath of the flood that followed Cyclone Debbie, Mayor of Tweed Councillor Katie Milne provides this overview of activities. All quotes should be contributed to the Mayor of Tweed.

Flood Mitigation / Future Planning

The recent event has reaffirmed the importance of the Flood Plain Risk Management Study and Plan, recently reported to Council and highlights the issues that the community has had to deal with over the past two weeks.

This event caught everyone by surprise, the amount of rain - 600 – 750mm that fell within 24-48 hours, well beyond what was forecasted - and the height and rate of river rise was unprecedented in the recorded history of the Tweed.

At this early stage we know that the Flood Plain Risk Management Study reported and adopted by Council in 2014, proved to be an accurate assessment of the flood risks and modelling.

Some of the options that will be on the table for future discussions include seeking funding assistance from higher levels of government to implement the adopted strategies from the Flood Plain Risk Management Study and Plan.

The Plan, available at www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/Flooding discusses strategies such as community education, additional warning systems, reviews of town planning controls, flood mitigation works and voluntary purchase schemes to help reduce flood impacts on for the community.

We remind the community that there are a range of measures that can be considered and implemented to mitigate flood-risk – but no one can prevent a flood. These measures are long term and require commitments from all tiers of government, consultation with the community and buy-in for them to succeed.

Emergency/Flood Event Debrief / Review

Council is still working its way through the recovery phase of the recent floods and is yet to have a full debrief with all agencies and internal Council departments.

In time we will have a full debrief, however, right now our immediate focus continues to be on emergency restorations. There are always lessons from floods - be they large or small, that we can take and apply to respond better to future events.

Recovery Centre

More than 1000 people have registered at the Recovery Centre since it established in Murwillumbah.

Our strong message to the community is that if you know of someone in need - businesses or individuals - please encourage them to make contact with the Recovery Centre as soon as possible, so that the State Government aware of the needs of the community and the scale of the issue here in the Tweed. They can’t assist or connect those in need to the right services if they don’t know about you.

The Recovery Centre and state agencies will be here until demand indicates they are no longer needed. Operating hours for April are:

Monday 24 9am-5pm

Tuesday 25 CLOSED

Wednesday 26 9am-5pm

Thursday 27 9am-5pm

Friday 28 9am-5pm

Saturday 29 10am-4pm

Sunday CLOSED

These hours and centre opening will be reviewed based on need. For more information visit: https://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/for-the-community/severe-weather-north-east-nsw.html

Roads

Network Update: Council has identified 1200 works items across the shire’s road network that need to be repaired or remediated following the flood of 1 April. The estimated damages bill to date is approaching $20 million.

Council is on track to have a temporary one-lane timber bridge across Byrrill Creek by mid May to replace the bridge washed away until a permanent bridge can be designed, funded and constructed.

Last week Council crews and contractors were working on priority landslips and washouts on roads including: Tyalgum Creek, Lone Pine, Rowlands Creek, Hopkins Creek, Urliup, Numinbah, Glencoe, Nobbys Creek and Kyogle roads and Tweed Valley Way.

By the end of the week they were expected to also have started work on bypassing the missing section of Manns Road; fixing the scours and table drains of Commissioners Creek Road; removing large tree debris from Byrrill Creek and Upper Burringbar roads to allow the rubbish truck access; removing silt from Tweed Valley Way and Kyogle Road; and, unblocking a causeway on Urliup Road.

Council is working to schedule a restart to the Blackspot Programme of realigning a section of Clothiers Creek Road and picking up the work it had started on Moolau Avenue, Tweed Heads, prior to the flood.

Clothiers Creek Road landslip

Temporary traffic lights have been placed on a section of Clothiers Creek Road reduced to one lane by a landslip in the 1 April flood.

The section, between Farrants Road and Norths Lane, also has been placed under a 4.5-tonne vehicle weight limit after a geotechnical assessment indicated that heavy vehicle usage through the slip area should be limited to essential services. School buses and garbage trucks will be exempt from the weight limit.

Council will install more signage on the section over coming weeks to further advise of the weight limit. Heavy vehicle operators are advised to use alternate routes between Bogangar and Nunderi, avoiding Clothiers Creek Road.

The temporary traffic lights will remain in place until rehabilitation works on the section can be undertaken. While these works will be prioritised, as yet no start date has been set.

Waste

The Council tip has taken 13,000 tonnes of flood waste and debris (and still increasing) from across the Tweed. To put this in perspective – we usually take 1500 tonne in one of the household clean-up – we have taken nearly nine times more to our landfill. Flood waste clean-up is nearing its end as we transition into the planned shire wide Household clean up from next week. For more information about the Household Clean up see http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/HouseholdCleanup

Water and Wastewater

Water Notices: The first post-flood water notices are in the mail. Flood-affected residents concerned about a spike in their water bill following the flood clean-up are advised to wait until their bill arrives before seeking assistance.

In past floods, residential water bills have been largely unaffected by flood clean-up tasks. Following the floods of January 2008 in Tumbulgum, Council investigated the effect of flood clean-up on residential water bills and found only one in eight properties used more water than normal and that the excess use equated to 5000 litres and cost approximately $6. An investigation also was carried out after the January 2013 flood with similar results.

Council expects the same to hold true for the approximately 1000 residential properties across the shire affected by the 1 April flood. But, if the bill does reflect a spike in use, please contact Council on 6670 2400 and we will review the situation on a case-by-case basis.

Mayoral Appeal

As at 24 April, the Mayoral Flood Appeal has raised more than $159,000 and is growing daily thanks to the generosity of a wide range of business, event fundraisers and individuals.

One hundred percent of funds will be distributed; there are no administration fees associated with the appeal. All donations are tax deductible.

Council is appointing an independent Committee, who will join the Mayor of Tweed and Council’s Internal Auditor, to review applications for assistance. Priority will be given to those people and businesses who have limited access to other forms of assistance such as insurance or disaster funding.

Council is in the process of establishing the criteria to apply for appeal funds using a simple application process. Funds will be distributed in stages as the appeal continues, with the first of those anticipated to be open in a week.

Stay updated on the Mayoral Flood Appeal page: http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/MayorAppealFund

There is a range of community events being held across the Tweed over the coming weeks with all monies raised going to the Mayoral Flood Appeal. As of Friday 21 April, these are the events we know about include:

• 30 April 12pm – Salt Bar (Beach Bar and Bistro) – Charity Auction, Raffles and Free Family Entertainment. Salt Village, Kingscliff./li>
• 3 May – Variety Show ‘Water Under the Fridge’ – Murwillumbah Theatre Company/li>
• 21 May – Rock-n-Recovery Sunday Session, Condong Bowls Club

Council acknowledges the enormous personal, physical and emotional toll of the recent floods and the impact they have had on the lives of so many Tweed families. Especially those who were already vulnerable with respect to housing.

While Council takes an active role wherever possible, homelessness and the provision of services are the primary responsibility of the State Government and we are working closely with them to identify and refer details of people impacted by the recent flood.

Council has taken significant measures to support community members displaced during and after the flood event, most significantly funding staff resources at the Flood Recovery Centre, including the Centre Manager, which is the key point of contact for people seeking accommodation.

Council also has taken practical steps to help displaced people, such as providing use of the Art Gallery and facilities for those residents of the Greenhills Caravan Park and opening aquatic centre bathrooms and showers free to the public during the event.

Council’s Environmental Health staff also visited many of the affected caravan parks since the floods to declare them safe to occupy as soon as possible.

We estimate 100 people have been displaced by the flood over and above the hundreds of people we knew already were homeless and at risk of being homeless across the Tweed.

Council Response, Staff and Customer Service

Our response to this flood has been a highly coordinated operation, particularly given the size, scale and impact of the event.

We know first-hand how well Council, State and Federal agencies, not for profit organisations and the community work together to respond to the many diverse issues and needs in a time of crisis – Council is not tasked with doing that alone.

As a community we can be proud of how well we pulled together and supported each other. There are so many examples of business helping business, stranger helping stranger that demonstrate hope, determination, mateship and resilience of our community.

As for Council staff and operations, I am really proud of our workforce who worked tirelessly from the start to restore critical services, establish recovery centres and get the Tweed back on its feet. Our staff are local and live here too, with many of them impacted personally, yet they still went above and beyond. There are some great examples of teamwork and positive organisational culture that I am happy to be a part of.

In the week following the flood, our Contact Centre staff took more than 2300 calls that is, one call every minute our phone lines were open, and that doesn’t even include front-counter enquiries.

We usually get 30,000 visits to our website in a month. We received this in just one week during the flood emergency.

Our building inspection team offered free structural home inspections, with more than 20 homeowners taking up the offer.

Our thanks go to all of our contractors and other local councils including Gold Coast, Ballina, Port Macquarie Hastings, Coffs Harbour, Byron, Richmond Valley and Kyogle for their support with plant and equipment.

Council lost 35 trucks and heavy plant and 27 passenger vehicles, representing about one third of our fleet.

All Council services and cultural facilities are open and back to business as usual.

TRAC Murwillumbah has some repair work to do to the pool lining and filers on the outdoor pool which needs to be completely drained to clean the mud from the base. We do not want the pool empty for longer than necessary to avoid the pool shell ‘popping’ or cracking which can happen when they are empty. Fortunately, the outdoor pool traditionally closes after Easter and during the winter months so there is minimal disruption to pool users.

We encourage all of our community to slow down, drive safe, take care on the roads and be cautious of any hidden hazards or debris on the waterways. Please check in with each other regularly and harness that wonderful community spirit we have seen emerge from these floods.