Kempsey Shire Council mayor Liz Campbell confident the community will get through March floods

In 2020 there was, and still is, coronavirus.

In March 2021, there's floods.

The Macleay Valley continues to be affected by events out of their control but the community will recover and come through shining on the other side.

Kempsey Shire mayor Liz Campbell is confident of this.

"We will get through this, we've been through floods before," she told the Argus.

Our mayor has been present for it all.

She "vividly remembers" the 1963 flood where water was "up to the bridge in both streets" as well as 2001.

Despite the experience in dealing with these events, this month's natural disaster leaves a lot of work to be done.

"We've cleaned up for floods before so we not what to do but at the moment we don't know the extent because this is taking a lot of time to end considering the water went into Smithtown on Friday night so we're still not sure what we're faced with yet," she said.

"We've had the CBD packed up since Friday night and it's now Tuesday so that's a significant loss of trade but the CBD is just one part of what happens here.

"The lower Macleay, the flood plain, the farmers down there and the people at Smithtown, Gladstone and Belmore they're the ones that are really going to feel this and up river with isolation due to road and bridge closures.

"Watching those flood levels and the drama is stressful, people don't get enough sleep when they're worried, the rain comes and you don't know what's going to happen."

Mayor Campbell said council projects have been significantly impacted.

"Of course there's the infrastructure as well, the roads, you don't know what's underneath the water and our bridges," she explained.

"We did work on our gravel roads, we were halfway through a year's project with that so a lot has been washed away and has to be redone.

"It's hard for the community and that's where I feel it, we were looking at a really bright year coming off the back of the fires and COVID, things were really looking up and then you get hit with something else that you have to deal with."

Local emergency services have been integral in ensuring people are kept safe and supplies are provided to those in need.

Mayor Campbell was full of praise for their work.

"Our local SES, RFS and other emergency services, they've been working non-stop, they're local community members themselves and have been affected by the fires and flood," she said.

"Some have small or larger farms but they have to continue working and it's the same as our council workers, they're really tired at the moment but keep going."

The mental health of those affected is something the mayor wants to support as well.

"The community well-being and mental health here, we don't have the resources and facilities they have in other areas," she stated.

"It's difficult to access certain services and you need to build into the community that resilience to come through this.

"We do it pretty well given we don't have a lot of the resources that are put in place in city areas and that's something we really need to focus on.

"We still have the recovery hub open for fires, so we've already started planning to keep that operational for the fires and the flood because people will need to access that and it's worked really well so far."

The SES also helped transport mayor Campbell and KSC general manager Craig Milburn to Crescent Head today, with the town still isolated due to flooding on the Belmore River and the corduroy.

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