When the water began to rise on Kevin Schlenert’s farm in Glenthorne near Taree,eventually submerging every inch of it, he took shelter on a raised mattress in his bedroom. But as he waited for help, fearing the worst, some of his cattle had the same idea.
“I had a heifer come into the bedroom,” Schlenert says.
“She wanted to jump on the mattress and I had to actually push her back to get away from me. I felt bloody terrible doing it but it was either me or her. All I kept saying to myself was, ‘I am not ready to drown and die here. I don’t want to die here.”
Schlenert spent a night huddled with his cows, surrounded by water, last week. When he was eventually rescued by a neighbour on a boat, he left with just his clothes, his cat and dog.
When the water subsided and Schlenert returned to his home, he discovered five of his cows had died inside. Another three were alive in the home, but needed urgent care.
“People have said to me: ‘Why didn’t you have the doors closed?’ I did have them shut to try to keep the water out, but the pressure of the cows and the water was just too much,” he says.
Like many farmers in the region, Schlenert is now burying his dead stock. So far, he’s discovered 15 dead cows. But he says about 70% of his herd has been washed away, unaccounted for. At the flood’s peak, the water rose until only a metre or so of the dairy’s roof was exposed.
“We are trying to organise other farmers to take our cows to milk as the dairy is a total write-off,” he says. “We don’t have power and I assume we won’t have it for weeks.”
Schlenert, 57, is a third-generation farmer. He has now seen five major floods tear through the region, including in 1978, when the Manning River breached its banks. Now “virtually homeless” and staying with friends, he fears he is being forced to “give up on the industry”.
“It’s just got to the point where I think this will send me bankrupt,” Schlenert says. “I think I have no choice. This is breaking point for me.”
Peita Carroll, who runs a Sydney rock oyster farm near the Manning River estuary, says her stock has also been decimated. She has now endured five floods in five years. She says she won’t be able to sell anything for another two years.
“We always get left behind because no one sees our stock die,” Carroll says. “They see the cows and they see the sheep – this is a big farming area – people share the images. But this is our stock too.”
Like many others, Schlenert and Carroll are mostly uninsured. This is not uncommon, according to the Insurance Council of Australia’s Andrew Hall, who says insurance rates for flood-prone areas are “less than one in four”.
So far, more than 3,600 insurance claims have been lodged after the severe flooding across the mid-north coast, Hunter and greater Sydney regions. Four in five claims are for personal property, with the remainder being commercial and motor claims.
“People who can least afford to lose everything are living in homes that were built in the wrong location and often have very little flood defences available to them,” Hall told ABC TV on Sunday.
Hall says far more money needs to be spent on preventive measures, to limit the impact of future floods. While surveying the damage to his property and stock, Schlenert agrees.
“Why hasn’t the Manning River got sirens on it that alert people to when it’s peaking?” he asks. “Why haven’t the politicians got off their arses and made this happen? They need to get them in place as soon as possible.”
As the focus turns from rescue to recovery, thestate government has announced“a range of immediate support measures” for those affected by the floods, including hardship payments. Schlenert is pleading with the government to move as quickly as possible.
The state’s premier, Chris Minns, acknowledges these payments have not always helped desperate people in a timely fashion.
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“We’re determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past, given we’re having more and more of these natural disasters,” Minns said on the weekend.
As people await long-term help, neighbours have been doing all they can to support each other.
In Taree, India Boss and Chloe Graham handed out cold beers to strangers sweeping mud and rubbish from homes. Earlier in the day, they carried sausages in bread to those fighting exhaustion.
The huge piles of rubbish gathered by the volunteers include picture frames and children’s toys, washed from far-away homes. Mattresses, chairs and tables have been tossed onto the pile awaiting collection.
Local businesses in Wingham, to the north-west of Taree, have been providing free food and drinks to those “who’ve lost everything”. Paul, who runs a local pizza shop in the town, says it was like the community “was forgotten for a few days”.
“It was just very hard to get resources,” says Paul. “It was no one’s fault, it was just a once-in-a-lifetime flood. It’s very tough.”
The state’s housing minister, Rose Jackson, says the government is committed to helping those in need and is “working closely with emergency services and community leaders to understand what locals need and provide help to those impacted”.
Almost 200 additional emergency service partners from Queensland, Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT have been deployed to the area to help the state emergency service (SES).
“So far, 480 damage assessments have been carried out, with building inundation seen in many locations, and many have sustained significant damage and are unhabitable,” SES assistant commissioner Allison Flaxman said.
The agency has responded to more than 7,400 incidents and conducted almost 800 flood rescues. In the 24 hours to Sunday morning, there were 328 incidents reported to the SES, including 16 flood rescues. More than 40 people remained in evacuation centres, unable to return home.
While many people are now focused on rebuilding their lives, the SES is urging them not to become complacent.
“I get why people want to get back on the road and get back into the communities where they can but again, my message is, do not go through flood waters,” says the SES commissioner, Mike Wassing.
“I want to see zero flood rescues tomorrow. That’s my aim, and I need people to and the community members to help me in achieving that aim.”