The Flood Readiness - Are We Better Prepared series covers key organisations that play a vital role in pre-flood warnings and in the rescue & recovery after a major flood. We are asking those organisations to let us know how the 2022 floods and Flood Inquiry have changed their procedures and processes so people will experience better outcomes.

So we know what to expect when the unexpected happens next.

Local charities played a vital role in the first days of the big flood rescue, feeding and clothing, thousands of people. What have they learnt and what have they improved?

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The response of so many people and charities that came to the assistance of Lismore and the Northern Rivers in 2022 was unsurpassed. We could have spoken to many charities, however, we decided to approach four large organisations that were there, assisting tirelessly, supporting people and providing the area with valuable resources to help respond to the immediate crisis, and the longer recovery process over the years.

SALVATION ARMY

The Salvation Army’s red shield is synonymous with care and protection. Their response to the floods and their work since have reflected this sentiment. They have had a presence in the Northern Rivers for over 130 years, and their role appears far from over. A spokesperson for the Salvation Army provided us with their experience in the floods and their developing role in disasters.

How did the Salvos perceive the scale and longevity of the issues of the 2022 floods over time?

The 2022 floods were the largest and longest response by The Salvation Army across the Northern Rivers. The Salvation Army provided a twofold response with an initial response in the Evacuation Centre providing meals to evacuees, not just in Lismore but in multiple locations. We were onsite in Lismore for 4 weeks in total across the two major floods. The Salvation Army provided emergency response personnel from across the country to help supplement the local teams, which helped provide the resources for as long as required.

(The Salvos feeding the people of South Lismore in August 2022)

Alongside the response was the recovery program, providing financial aid and support to those who had been displaced by this disaster. Initially, the response was in the Disaster Recovery Centres, before moving into an outreach model. Extended outreach was made possible thanks to a wonderful donation of a Winnebago from the Minderoo Foundation that became a mobile office, enabling the recovery teams to travel to the various locations around the Northern Rivers and meet affected community members personally at their place of impact or nearby. This service was well received by community members as many of them were feeling alone in their recovery, so to have someone still assisting was a great boost and gave them hope. 

What has changed in the Salvo’s response to an event of this scale?

The Salvation Army has been working alongside State and Federal Disaster preparedness and recovery teams to work on best practice models for future disasters. We have been working on a range of response plans on how we operate at Evacuation Centres for the initial response and working with recovery teams on a best practice model for making sure longer-term support gets to those who need it. Following lessons learned from the floods, the Salvation Army Emergency Services has recruited and positioned a regional coordinator in the northern part of NSW to provide more immediate and local capability for response and preparedness.

The Salvation Army now operates a model where we act earlier than previously operated to make sure we have prepositioned resources on hand and available. This includes volunteers, food and equipment. We have also been working alongside our national partner Woolworths and, through their generous support, have been able to purchase several key resources, including a catering truck, catering trailer and mobile cold-room, which are now based in Lismore so that this region is better prepared for the future.

Having this equipment based locally means that we can better recruit, train and equip local volunteers on how to respond if and when a disaster happens. This equipment is vital not just to our response for floods, but any disaster that may happen across the northern part of NSW.

However, while The Salvation Army Emergency Services (SAES) team has full-time, strategically positioned personnel, like most community-based organisations we rely on volunteers to help us scale up and respond to any incident. Large scale events like the 2022 floods remind us of how generous Australians can be, but also that we never have enough people who are willing to be trained before an event. We are working hard to change that so that 'next time' we have volunteers ready to respond and to alleviate immediate suffering.    

Has the Salvation Army developed a response plan to weather events of this scale?

We have been working across a number of areas to develop our response plans to any disaster events that happen. The Northern Rivers is a diverse area, and we respond to a wide range of events as tasked by The Salvation Army's Emergency Services leaders. We now have greater connection with emergency services and the early warnings delivered to act early. We also have a stronger relationship with food distribution networks to ensure greater access to the resources we need to be able to respond.

The Salvation Army's Emergency Services leadership are included and contributing to Federal and State government Preparedness Summits and working groups. Providing a voice for some of the most vulnerable and through partnerships with first responding agencies and other sector actors, including NEMA, we are seeking to ensure we are prepositioned in the most at risk contexts and appropriately equipped to provide immediate support.

Will people see anything different from you in the next major flood event?

The Salvation Army now has a regionally based emergency response lead, and a larger range of equipment and resources to help us respond to emergencies and disasters in the Northern Rivers. With a refreshed structure and operating model, and renewed partnerships, the community can be assured that we have prepositioned local teams with the resources to respond quickly and appropriately, and a surge capacity that can draw trained and equipped personnel and resources from across Australia into any emergency context.  

With the equipment based in the Northern Rivers, the community will also see The Salvation Army more regularly at community events and functions as we use this equipment to train, equip and recruit volunteers and support the community. The Salvation Army Northern Rivers has been in the community since 1891 and we are here to support not just in the initial week and months following a natural disaster, but for the long term as we play our part in helping the community recover.

Salvation Army Website

LIFELINE

Michael Were, the Executive Director at Lifeline in Lismore spoke to us about their experience during the floods. This was not anything the organisation anticipated - not because of the flood height, but due to taking on roles they were not specialised in. The difficulties they faced have been tantamount to highlighting issues that require better planning and forethought for future disasters. 

How did Lifeline perceive the scale and longevity of the issues of the 2022 floods over time?

As a crisis and suicide prevention-focused organisation, we view that the 2022 flood recovery is far from over. Based on other climate-related disasters, our experience is that the effects, including the cumulative trauma of multiple events in recent history, will still be felt for years to come. Through its 24/7 crisis support, local suicide prevention action groups, and its disaster recovery and wellbeing programs, Lifeline continues to play a role in the Northern Rivers recovery.

In the immediate aftermath, calls to Lifeline from residents in the Northern Rivers doubled compared to the prior month pre-flood. In the ensuing months, we observed approximately 50% more calls from residents in the Northern Rivers compared to pre-flood. The Lismore site on Conway Street was decimated; however, as Lifeline’s crisis support service is networked through over 40 locations across the country, we were still able to maintain our service with our colleagues across the nation stepping up to provide extra support. 

This is a usual process for Lifeline nationally, with plans in place to mobilise extra resources around the country when critical incidents occur, or a specific site is down. Our crisis lines – via phone, text, and webchat – remained open 24/7 despite the loss of the Lismore site. We acknowledge that access to our crisis services are linked to a help seeker's ability to connect to phone service or internet service, and for some residents across the Northern Rivers this was an issue with communication networks down. 

What has changed in Lifeline’s response to an event of this scale?

One of my key learnings was that Lifeline’s local asset base was very at risk itself. We lost our office, call centre, shops and all our vehicles which exacerbated our capacity to stabilise our business operations and be able to strongly support the community. Losing most of our business operations really did hamper our ability to be as responsive as we would have liked, particularly in the days immediately after the floods.

This led to some strategic decisions, including the recent move of our warehouse from Three Chain Road to Goonellabah and the consolidation of our 3 Lismore retail locations into one larger site on Magellan Street. While our regional office remains in Conway Street for the foreseeable future, we could easily convert some of the Goonellabah site if Conway Street was out of action. Hopefully, no need to work out of caravans! 

(The new Goonellabah Lifeline site)

Nationally, Lifeline’s services are being delivered more and more via digital/remote means rather than from a bricks-and-mortar base. We have more staff and volunteers working remotely than ever before, which is good in a risk mitigation sense.

Has Lifeline developed a response plan to weather events of this scale?

Lifeline has a rather comprehensive Business Continuity Plan. As a national-scale organisation, there are certain standards and expectations with regards to business continuity that we need to comply with at a local level. It’s always evolving, being tested, and improved. I’d like to see us be a bit more objective (when X happens we do Y based around emergency services information), we’re still a bit too subjective in terms of leaving it to local staff decision on when we should start lifting or moving out of Conway or Magellan St. Having a location off the flood plain at Goonellabah makes it much easier to have a better plan. So, we’re working towards that.

The other part of Lifeline’s 2022 flood response was the Distribution Centre at the Showground. It’s important to point out that Lifeline established the site at the request, and on behalf of Lismore City Council. While Lifeline played a similar role in 2017, staff turnover meant there were very few involved in 2017 that were still with the organisation in 2022. We got the request call from Council about 5 days after the flood; it was not a role that we were prepared or planned for at all. It is not ideal to start planning a response 5 days after the event! 

(The Lifeline Distribution Centre at the Lismore Showground in 2022)

We’ve been really open with Council and the NSW Reconstruction Authority about our learnings; I’ve been working with NSW Reconstruction Authority and have provided input based on our experience into a state-wide donated goods guide for community organisations. Along with other community organisations experience from the 2022 floods and other disasters around NSW, I believe this guide will be useful for organisations that decide to step into the donated goods space in the future.

Will people see anything different from you in the next major flood event?

We’ve been really open with Council and the NSW Reconstruction Authority about our learnings from the Distribution Centre. We’ve been strongly advocating that a community organisation needs to know that this is their agreed role and allow them to start to prepare for it now. There is an inherent cost in managing donated goods and a distribution centre – for example there were waste costs for completely unsuitable donations that are inevitably sent to any disaster location, Lifeline needed to pay labour hire costs to ensure we had a forklift operator on site to unload trucks when volunteers with appropriate skills were not available – a community organisation needs to understand all the cost implications, and know how they will afford to pay them, before jumping in and in my opinion, before the disaster event occurs.

As a crisis support and suicide prevention charity, we were the first to acknowledge that operating the Distribution Centre is not our core service to the community - I’m not aware of Lifeline playing a role like this elsewhere in Australia in other disasters. If there is a better-placed organisation to work with Council and other authorities in future disasters, we would strongly support them taking the lead. They should be appointed to that role now, so they can be in a good position to respond. I should also acknowledge the incredible work of Koori Mail, SCU, and Karen and the team at Wyrallah Road (now known as the Good Pantry); it would have been a hugely challenging task if the Showground was the only location. I think there is a specific role that Lifeline could provide at donation hubs – we could continue to provide locally based crisis supporters on the site – but as it currently stands, Lifeline has not been asked, nor intends to take on the role of managing a major donated goods distribution centre in Lismore in a future disaster.

Lifeline exists to ensure that no person in Australia faces their darkest moment alone. Our core services in crisis support and suicide prevention will continue to play a role in disaster recovery right across Australia, including the Northern Rivers. We continuing to work with Council and the NSW Reconstruction Authority on how we can best contribute to disaster preparedness and recovery.

Lifeline Website

Tomorrow, we will hear from a global charity that started in Lismore - the Lions Club, and the Red Cross, synonymous with aid as Part 7 continues.

Other stories in this series includes:

Part 1: Essential Energy 

Part 2: Communications - Telstra and Optus

Part 2: Communications - TPG Telecom and nbn

Part 3: Police and Fire + Rescue

Part 4: Critical Flood Information

Part 5: Animals

Part 6: The Federal Government