Urunga resident Lina Bluhm is keen to see if a petition tabled in parliament last week and generated after a 1:100 year storm event on March 31 brings results.
Federal MP Luke Hartsuyker tabled the petition on June 23 which calls on the Rudd Government to provide one-off cash grants to those affected by the March 31 floods.
Lina an art teacher at Toormina High School was uninsured and lost everything in the ensuing flood and was one of 6000 Bellingen, Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Heads residents who signed their names to the document.
Speaking on the petition in the Parliament, Mr Hartsuyker said the Prime Minister had reneged on his commitment in the Parliament to provide the same assistance to March 31 flood victims as was being extended to those affected by a flood event in May.
“I rise to present a petition on behalf of the residents of Coffs Coast, because there has been substantial inequity in the treatment of the victims of the storm event of 31 March,” Mr Hartsuyker told the Parliament.
“Our Prime Minister sees his way clear to promising assistance in this House—in the presence of the press gallery, in the full gaze of the national media—and delivers nothing.
“To our Prime Minister the plight of Coffs Coast storm victims is of no concern. He came into this House and promised them help on 25 May. He created a media opportunity, he danced in the spotlight and then he turned his back.
“He turned his back on many who had lost everything. He turned his back on the needy—people like 89-year-old war veteran Athol Hardie. He is a man with failing health who has lost everything. His house was destroyed and he was uninsured.
“The Prime Minister clearly believes that Athol Hardie is not worthy of assistance. The Prime Minister believes the countless pensioners, low-income earners and families affected by this storm are not worthy of assistance.
“The 6,000 Coffs Coast residents who signed this petition think differently. They think that the Coffs Coast storm victims deserve help.
“They deserve the help of this parliament and they deserve the support of this House. The 31 March storm event was declared a natural disaster, just like other storm events this year.
In Lina’s case the flooding to her and her partner’s unit in Lourdes Avenue Urunga was totally unexpected.
‘The units were built in 1971 and had never flooded before.
“We got flooded at school first and then I got in the car and it took me an hour to drive the normal 15 min trip home.
“By the time I got to the BP near Newry Island, there was already about 20cm of water over the road and I followed a truck through.”
She said when she got to her unit she stayed in the car long enough to ring her mother and in that short time noticed the water rising quickly.
She moved her car to higher ground and said the water rose so swiftly it was knee high inside the unit in less than an hour.
“I had started putting things up but within 20 minutes it was coming through and I thought I’d better just get what’s important.
“By then it was halfway up my legs and it was still lightning and thundering outside so I thought I’d better turn the power points off and get out of her before I’m struck by lightening.”
By the time Lina tried to leave there were trees against the back door and she had trouble opening the other door due to the pressure of the water.
She made it to a friends place as it began to hail.
By the next day she returned to the unit to find the water reached a height of 1.7 metres.
Even then the water was still about waist level.
“I couldn’t believe what the water had done.
“The fridge was on top of the stove, it was as though someone took all the gravity out of the place and then put it back, and stuff was every where.”
She said the any support from the Federal government would make a difference.
‘We were not covered by insurance.
“You don’t think about it when it’s second hand stuff, but I wish we’d had it because when you start to add it all up, the cloths, the books, photo’s my artworks I was in shock for two weeks.
“There is nothing I could have done; the speed of the rising water was frightening.”
The petition calls on the House to “Provide Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Nambucca Shire residents affected by the March 31, 2009 floods the same Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment of $1000 per adult and $400 per child that has been afforded to victims of the May 2009 floods in northern NSW and south east Queensland.”
It has been forwarded to the Federal Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin who has 90 days to respond.
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