In their own words: when the floods came
Sharna, from West Ballina
"Within ten minutes, the water almost covered the whole road out the front of my house. That's how fast it was coming up. I only just got my car and the kids out. We had to walk through probably shin-deep water to get to my car. We've lost all our bedding, most of our clothes. I had a four-bedroom house and a massive yard, so everything's gone. The whole kitchen has to be redone; walls knocked down. We can't live there for quite some time.”
Jeffrey, from Kyogle
“I started panicking because, well, I had a pacemaker put in. And the doctor said, 'Don’t stress, it will put you into a cardiac arrest.' And my blood pressure was going up, I thought I don’t need this, this is a joke. But, I said, not much you can do about it, just got to put up with it. When you get help, it brings you to tears, but it lets you know you’re not by yourself.”
Vickie, from Lismore
“The water was horrific ... it was so cold, and it kept coming. It didn’t stop. It’s so hard to describe the feeling of standing in your own kitchen, in this freezing cold water and there’s nothing you can do about it.”