Introduction by Croakey: The storm may have passed, but for communities in the New South Wales Northern Rivers and south-east Queensland, the clean-up is just beginning.
Fallen trees, damaged roads, and widespread power outages have left thousands grappling with the aftermath of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
While floodwaters recede, the focus is shifting to restoring essential services, supporting those most affected, and addressing the mental toll of another extreme weather event.
For the Northern Rivers, this was a test of resilience built in the wake of the catastrophic 2022 floods. Since then, communities have strengthened local networks, improved emergency communication, and worked with authorities to close critical gaps in disaster response.
This time, those lessons made a difference, helping ensure faster, more coordinated action. But with extreme weather events becoming more frequent, the challenge now is to sustain and support these community-led resilience efforts in the face of an unpredictable climate.
Alison Barrett writes:
In the lead-up to and days since ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, community resilience groups and new ways of responding to emergencies were put to the test in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.
In the three years since floods devastated Lismore and the Northern Rivers, communities have been working to address some of the gaps in preparedness and response highlighted during the disaster.
The past week “was a really big trial run for lots of communities who’ve been working really hard to try and improve preparedness”, Dr Rebecca McNaught, Northern Rivers resident and Research Fellow at the University Centre for Rural Health, told Croakey.
She said the New South Wales Government was also doing things differently and learning lessons from the 2022 floods.
“I am pleased to see that…things like the information flow, up and down the chain, was really improved,” she said.
While the Northern Rivers and south-east Queensland were impacted this time, “there’s increasing potential for events to occur in communities across Australia”.
“So, it’s really important that we consider [the] risks and prepare,” McNaught said.
Ongoing impact
Although all emergency alerts relating to ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in Queensland and New South Wales have been cancelled and flood waters are receding, many are continuing to feel the impacts.
A minor flood warning remains in place for Warrill Creek in the Ipswich area and in Grafton, Coraki and Bungawalbyn in New South Wales.
According to ABC News on 13 March, 33,000 properties remain without power across south-east Queensland. In northern NSW, 3,900 properties remain without power.
Megan Spindler-Smith, Deputy CEO of People with Disability Australia, told Croakey that power outages often disproportionately impact people with disability, particularly those who rely on powered medical devices, accessible transport and stable housing.
“People may be left without power for their life-sustaining equipment, stranded in homes they can’t physically leave and unable to access basic services,” they said.
“Right now, the priority must be making sure people with disability have safe and accessible places to stay, access to healthcare and the supports they need to get through this crisis and access critical information.
“This includes restoring power or providing alternative energy sources like generators for those who rely on electricity for disability needs.”
Spindler-Smith is calling for further national coordination and funding to ensure disaster preparedness and recovery responses are truly disability-inclusive in the longer-term.
“This is particularly crucial for preparedness, as current tools are not fully accessible or require support to use them and this has serious implications for our choices, control and safety during disasters,” they said.
Spindler-Smith told Croakey a coordinated response is needed to ensure people can access their medications, essential healthcare and supports.
“For many people with disability, access to a disability support worker is impacted during an emergency as their worker may not be able to reach them, impacted by the disaster themselves or stretched providing support to multiple clients.
“The assumption of living with family or informal supports is not as common as people or our responses assume. Disability support workers and emergency services must be given the resources to reach those who are isolated and at risk.”
Health risks
While the immediate risks from ex-Cyclone Alfred have receded, people are advised to stay out of flood waters that may be contaminated with chemicals, other pollutants, E. coli, snakes and dangerous animals, according to McNaught.
Mosquito-borne infections are also more common following floods, as well as bacterial infections from soil, including leptospirosis and melioidosis, which has seen increased reports following floods in Townsville and Cairns earlier this year.
AMA Queensland Immediate Past President Dr Maria Boulton told The Today Show last week that it is important for people to be mindful during the clean-up.
“Please protect yourselves. If you get a cut, make sure it’s treated properly…If you have protective gear, please wear it – so closed in shoes, long pants, and masks because above all, we don’t want to lose any more lives to this cyclone.”
Community resilience
Many community hubs emerged in the aftermath of Lismore and Northern Rivers flooding event in 2022, with volunteers supporting cleanup and recovery efforts, according to McNaught.
In the Byron Shire, 13 community resilience groups have since formalised and become recognised organisations in their communities and with Community Resilience Networks chaired by local Councils.
“You can describe it as a resilience movement in the Northern Rivers…everywhere around us,” said McNaught, who volunteers as president of her local community resilience team.
The 13 established community resilience groups in the Byron Shire meet at a local council every three months in “peace time”. During a disaster, such as ex-Cyclone Alfred, the groups meet daily, which helps with the flow of information.
“We’re trusted entities…we collate information about the situation on the ground and we can relay that to council, and council relays that to the local emergency management committee,” she said.
In addition, community resilience groups have established a street network which involves one or two residents in each flood-vulnerable street connecting with others in their community through a WhatsApp group.
When the community resilience groups receive information, “we share it on the street network and then they share it with people in their street”, McNaught said.
She said the feedback to the street network this week has been amazing – given so many people were affected by the 2022 floods, having this information really helped reduce people’s anxieties, she said.
The street network has been checking on people without family and friendship networks, elderly people and people with disability to keep people connected.
In McNaught’s research on the topic of local level collaboration for climate and disaster, with a particular focus on the Northern Rivers, she found the government system was overwhelmed by the scale of the 2022 floods and communities had to “step up” to fill the gaps.
McNaught told Croakey on Wednesday the rivers are still swollen, but many roads have re-opened, people are clearing tree debris and following a week off, kids have returned to school.
While a few houses in the community were damaged, “thankfully, we’ve been spared the worst of it,” she said.
One of the challenges this week has been accessing fresh food due to power outages. McNaught said the local supermarket’s backup generator stopped working during the power outage and lost all fresh produce.
Disaster relief payments are available for eligible people in Queensland and New South Wales.
Impact on mental health
A priority for the Northern Rivers’ communities in the aftermath of Alfred is coming together and supporting people as a community, McNaught said.
“No-one wanted to go through the threat of [floods] again so quickly…and we do think there’s been a mental health impact on people,” she said.
McNaught said the “role of community looking out for community and talking together and supporting each other is really important”.
While formal mental health support is available in the region, previous research with the University Centre for Rural Health shows that not everyone accesses formal mental health support, according to McNaught.
In response, the local Mullumbimby and District Neighbourhood Centre has scaled up their free counselling five days a week without referrals. Services like this and community support are important in a region still feeling the impacts from the 2022 floods.
Some people are still living in temporary accommodation because people can’t afford insurance, or materials to rebuild, or have only recently moved into new or renovated homes.
This is likely to be an ongoing issue, with climate risk assessments showing the potential for cyclones to come further south and rain events to intensify, McNaught told Croakey.
Further reading
Ex-Cyclone Alfred has left flooding in its wake. Here’s how floods affect our health
See Croakey’s archive of articles on disasters and health
