Strong winds across northern New South Wales are creating new challenges for residents recovering from the flood crisis. Almost 800 homes have already been declared uninhabitable. Rural Aid CEO John Warlters says it will take months for farmers to get back on their feet.
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00:00It's an absolutely gut-wrenching situation that we're seeing on the mid-north coast.
00:06I think we need to reflect back on the experiences that many of these people have been through
00:11up until this point.
00:12It wasn't so long ago that they were in the middle of a drought situation back through
00:172017 to 2019, and no one escaped drought at that time.
00:21New South Wales was 100% drought declared.
00:24And the drought was broken by a flood in 2021, and these same people were absolutely
00:31whacked at that time.
00:32They've now got back on their feet, and here they are, way, way back where they started
00:37back in 2021 with this, again, really big, dramatic event impacting their enterprises.
00:43And it's going to be a really significant challenge for them to pick themselves up and get themselves
00:48going again.
00:49We know that there's people who, across the agricultural spectrum that have been impacted
00:54here, we've got oyster farmers, and you don't get any more close to the water than an oyster
00:58farm, and we've seen the devastation that's been wrought on those sorts of enterprises.
01:03And then at the other end, you've got dairy farms and livestock owners who've seen their
01:08farms totally devastated as well.
01:11So getting dairies back and productive is really, really important, and we're starting
01:15to see that happen already.
01:16But getting them right back to the level they were pre-flood, it's not about days, it's not
01:21even about weeks, this is months and longer to really see these enterprises back to where
01:27they want to be.