Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs “You’d have to be super fit to stay above it because I was getting flushed out of eddies and pushed into trees really easily. I couldn’t swim against it. It’s a big eye-opener.”Drones buzz overhead; the new models can drop lifejackets to people flailing in floodwater or trapped on roofs.Riverside flooding in Coraki.Credit: Nick MoirOne of the drones is massive – the size of a dining table with four wicked propellers. It can deliver 40 kilos of food, safety gear or medical equipment if someone gets stranded.As floodwaters rage by, Coraki stays lucky. No serious rescues have been needed in this disaster, although the man lost to water near Dorrigo and the military truck crash near Lismore are on the rescuers’ minds.The squad doesn’t know where they might be called tomorrow. These are towns where waters rise quickly, danger gushes out of nowhere, and seemingly still water can drag cars under.Loading“It’s been terrible,” says Graham Weaire, a retired truck driver who lives in a street pinned by rising water on both sides. “There’s a lot of anxiety around.”Outside the front of his house, sewage is boiling up from a drain, water streaked with toilet paper leaping into a flooded paddock.The toilets along this street constantly choke and back up when there’s rain – they’ve been raising it with the council for 25 years to no avail, he says.Just last month, Weaire enquired about flood insurance for his newly renovated home, which flooded in 2022. They quoted him $32,000. “I’ve been a loyal NRMA customer for 50 years,” he says. “Why can’t they be loyal to me?”Weaire thinks of his son-in-law, who runs a fabricator business in south Lismore, an area hit by four massive floods in eight years.’It’s terrible: there’s been a lot of anxiety around,” says Graham Weaire, showing where his house flooded to last time.Credit: Louise Kennerley“I know that the government gets up there and says what they can and can’t do, but why isn’t something being done? It’s 2025. Build dams, raise the walls, do something.”Sandra Taylor has a nervous blue heeler called Missy glued to her leg. She’s looking up to the town’s Uniting Church from the edge of the floodwater.“We’ve all been asked to get out for days. Last time there was no information. This time there’s almost too much,” she said.LoadingTaylor is an artist who studied at the National Art School in Darlinghurst. She’s lived in Coraki for 20 years.When the 2022 flood disaster struck in Lismore, the town’s gallery was full of an exhibition of her artworks. She lost almost all of it; not just canvas and paints, but hours of work built of decades of effort.The precious little that remains is on display in her home, now just metres from floodwater. But this town, at least today, looks as if it will withstand this trial. Until the next rainband swings over.“I’ve been staying with friends, up the holy hill,” she says, pointing up the street.Is it the holy hill because there’s a church on it?“No,” she says. “Ever since the big flood, every hill is holy.”Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
