ABOVE: The river gauge at Woodburn. Other river towns want a gauge too. Photo: Paul Stanley-Jones
Susanna Freymark
The home of Broadwater resident Daniel Ainsworth was hit hard in the first flood on March 1.
One month later, on April 1, he was dealing with another flood in his village of 500 people.
This second flood filled the eastern end of town and water came into basements of houses previously flooded to their roofs.
In this flood, like the one before, locals looked after locals, Daniel said.
“This time it was a normal flood.”
People were nervous today because there was no information about Broadwater, he said.
For the residents it was a waiting game. Waiting to see how much the Richmond River rose, waiting to see when it would drop.
The old folk in town know that it takes three days for floodwaters to get to Broadwater from Lismore, Daniel said.
“We are usually half a metre lower than Woodburn. We’re going off history.”
Apart from evacuation warnings, residents struggled to get information about the river levels.
The flood bulletins need to include Broadwater, Wardell and Rileys Hill, Daniel said.
“It would relieve people’s stress,” he said.
“Even an estimate of the river levels would help.”
With high tide at 10pm tonight, there was still concern among residents.
Daniel wants to see a river gauge at Broadwater and regular updates about the river.
An automated river gauge linked to BOM would supply that information.
Today, in their second flood for the month, Daniel said everyone helped each other.
“We stick together as a community,” he said.
