Emergency services have suspended a search for a 70-year old woman who went missing after a landslip in Upper Wilsons Creek two weeks ago.
The woman is understood to have been in her Upper Wilsons Creek home on Monday 28 February when a large landslide, including soil, debris, rocks and trees from sides of the valley, engulfed the house around 4.30am.
Byron Bay Chief Inspector Matt Kehoe said on Friday extensive excavations and searches using specialist resources and equipment happened but the woman’s body wasn’t found.
Officers from the Tweed/Byron Police District were liaising with the woman’s family and the NSW Coroner, the chief inspector said.
Local police invite community to request army help
Chief Insp. Kehoe said he went to a community meeting with Upper Wilsons Creek, Huonbrook and Wanganui residents last Tuesday.
The hinterland communities were doing amazing things and were very well organised, Chief Insp. Kehoe said.
Police and Byron Shire Council staff had carried out fly overs of the worst affected hinterland areas to assess and prioritise works, he said.
Extra police from further south in the state were due to arrive Friday to help carry out high-visibility operations in flood affected towns including Mullumbimby, Murwillumbah, Lismore and Woodburn.
Richmond district officers said they’d received reports of looting in Lismore.
Tweed Byron police shared a link on their Facebook page last week for any community member to request the army’s help in disaster recovery efforts.
Sharing links isn’t gonna help people with limited power and comms! Just send the army up there and they can find out directly what’s needed for crissakes!
2 weeks too late
A big thank you to the amazing people in the community who are working tirelessly (even when exhausted) to bring food, water, support, hope …. to these valleys that have been so devastated.
Also a huge thank you to Matt Kehoe. You have been a shining light and a beacon of hope and support, along with your wonderful officers.
Over two weeks since the land started to slide out from underneath many many people we still ask: ‘Where is the mayor?’ I read in the Echo he held concerns for our safety up here and there was talk (rumours?) of evacuation, and then word that we were all ok up here and didn’t need help!!
But to my knowledge, as of Monday 14th March, he still had not come to look at the devastation in the valley to personally witness and understand the magnitude of the devastation, and perhaps even begin to learn from the local community / coordinators what is needed in such a disater situation and what has had to be done to feed people and make them safe.