Tweed mayor Katie Milne has paid tribute and expressed sympathy on behalf of the shire to the families and friends of the six people who lost their loved ones in the Tweed during the flood this past week.
Cr Milne said the tragic accident at Dulguigan in which 43-year-old mum Stephanie King and two of her children drowned was ‘a terrible tragedy and our condolences and prayers go out to the King and Kabealo family and their friends’.
Ms King was hailed a hero by police and local community after she died trying to save her eldest daughter Ella-Jane, 11, and son Jacob, 7, when their van plunged off a muddy Dulguigan Road at north Tumbulgum into the Tweed River.
Three other people died during the flood in the shire: a 36-year-old woman at Upper Burringbar whose car was washed away in floodwaters; and two men at a South Murwillumbah caravan park inundated by the flood last Friday. One of those men is suspected to have died from a heart attack.
Mayor Milne said the Dulguigan tragedy had ‘rocked us all to the very core at a time when emotions were already raw following the worst floods in our history’.
‘The accident has deeply affected our tight-knit community and has personally impacted a number of our staff who were related to and have close personal relationships with the family,’ mayor Milne said.
‘We have been supporting council staff who were relatives of the victims, their colleagues and others who were friends of the family who have all been affected by this tragedy, whilst clarifying the facts about the road status as we continue to rebuild our communities that have been affected by the worst floods in our history.’
‘Council has been unable to speak on the heartbreaking and sensitive Dulguigan Road accident until now, as we had yet to speak to the police and didn’t have all of the facts.
‘I can confirm that council has today spoken with police and provided a statement to them. This statement confirmed that Dulguigan Road was open and trafficable at the time of the accident, however like many of the roads in the Tweed following the floods, was subject to mud and debris.’ Mayor Milne said.
Road was not closed
‘There has been much speculation about the status of the road, and I wanted to provide the family and friends with certainty and clarification that Ms King was not travelling on a closed road.
There were surrounding road closures at the broader ends of these connecting roads, including Terranora Road at the Bilambil Road intersection until Monday, and Terranora Road was closed north of the Tumbulgum bridge on Thursday. Signage at Dulguigan Road was placed by Council, at police request, following the accident.
‘We have lost six members of the Tweed community around these floods and I am deeply saddened by the circumstances of this accident.
‘I also feel for the people who responded to the accident who must be terribly distressed and to members of the close knit Tumbulgum community where I understand the family was well known and much loved.’
Recovery Centre established
Meanwhile, a Recovery Centre for Murwillumbah has been established at the Murwillumbah Community Centre in Nullum Street, Murwillumbah.
The recovery centres opened in Lismore and Murwillumbah from noon yesterday and will be open from 9am-6pm from today (Friday).
The centre provides a one-stop shop for affected residents, businesses and farmers to access recovery assistance from a range of agencies and organisations.
For those requiring assistance, representatives of key welfare, business and insurance agencies will be on hand, or via referral from the site, to give help, advice and information to affected residents and business people.
Agencies based at the recovery centres will include Health, Disaster Welfare, Primary Industries, Insurance Agencies, Family and Community Services, Business Connect, Legal Aid, EPA, Centrelink, Red Cross and Safe Work NSW.
A natural disaster area has been declared in six local government areas including Lismore, Ballina, Byron, Kyogle, Richmond Valley and the Tweed.
A recovery committee chaired by Euan Ferguson has been appointed to manage the recovery process and will meet regularly to ensure a coordinated approach is adapted to the recovery.
For more information about how to seek assistance visit www.emergency.nsw.gov.au
Priority repairs
Meanwhile, Tweed council managers say the priority for council is to ensure safety and get access for isolated communities and that council will schedule road repairs on condition and usage.
‘Council is continuing to prioritise temporary repairs to roads that are extremely dangerous or where communities are still isolated,’ engineering director David Oxenham said.
‘We are working to get all isolated communities access by the weekend, but working conditions are difficult and on some of those roads through steep terrain the top and bottom sides are still saturated and more landslips are occurring.
‘We appreciate that residents inconvenienced by the damage to our road network are frustrated but we need to work to repair this damage in priority order. First, we make safe and restore access to isolated communities. Then, we schedule repairs to other roads based on their condition and the volume of traffic they carry.
‘I would like to ask all residents to be patient as we work through this mighty task.’
Council’s road information is updated twice a day on its website at http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/RoadWorks. It also is published on MyRoadsInfo, which includes information on our neighbouring shires.
‘Verifying information is one of the challenges of responding to emergency situations and our information is the best we have at the time but may not be complete,’ said Mr Oxenham.
Riverside Drive, Tumbulgum, remains closed to emergency services vehicles and local residents only as council and its contractors work to clear the rubbish and debris and restore full sewer services to the village.
Residents with further information on the condition of local roads can contact council on 6670 2400 to report major damage if the road is not listed below.
Residents are also urged not to call about potholes as crews will assess the damage over the coming weeks.
