LISMORE’S Luke and Elissa Virtue lost everything when flood water rose two metres above the floorboards in their elevated house, destroying everything and risking the lives of their family.
“Just when you think you’ve got life smoothing out – start again,” Mr Virtue said, reflecting on the record flood that hit on February 28.
Memories of that day are still raw and difficult to talk about – the rapid rise of water to record heights, packing valuables into a handful of boxes and a chaotic evacuation.
Yet the couple has spoken of generous neighbours, and a tight-knit community that is still rallying to help.
The weeks since the flood have been slow and uncertain as Luke and Elissa settled into temporary accommodation and returned to their jobs at St Vincent’s Hospital.
Just down the hill from the hospital, the mud-soaked contents of their home in First Avenue lie in a tangled pile on the street.
First Avenue is one of Lismore’s many ghost streets.
Every house has been stripped and temporarily abandoned.
There’s a stench of mould, garbage and rotting mattresses, and it’s eerily silent until the rumble of an army truck can be heard in the next street as a team of soldiers arrives to remove the debris.
For Elissa, the hardest losses are small family memorials – notes and documents that were treasured reminders of the birthdays of her four children.
“I can’t tell you what time each of them were born. I can’t remember,” Elissa said, holding back tears.
“… and their little baby braclets. Just little things like that.
“And it’s my son’s birthday today and I used to always write on the chalkboard Happy Birthday’.”
Both Luke and Elissa are sure they’ll return to their First Avenue home once their insurance claim is settled and rebuilding can start.
New walls, kitchen and bathroom are needed – work that could take a year to get done.
In the meantime, the couple and two of their children, 13 and 21, are staying at Luke’s parents place outside Lismore.
Since the disaster, their two other children, 18 and 24, have moved out so they can stay close to work.
For Luke, it’s enough that his family is safe and starting to recover.
For their 21-year old daughter it was enough to rescue the family dog, a litter of puppies, and her guitar.
“It’s been pretty hard on the kids, losing nearly everything and not being able to come home,” Luke said.
On February 28, Luke Virtue recalled having a sleepless night as heavy rain fell, and worrying about what might happen.
At 4.30am he went to the front verandah and saw water rising, so he secured gas bottles on the side of the house so they wouldn’t float away.
Within 40 minutes he watched the water level rise from shin height to chest height.
“By six o’clock it had risen to the floorboards and then just kept coming,” he said.
“A neighbour with a boat came to take the family to safety, but we have an 89-year- old neighbour so I told him to take him first.
“By that stage it was getting to chest height in the house.
“Our neighbour with the boat was rescuing people and getting called left right and centre around the neighbourhood.”
The Virtue family waited their turn and was eventually picked up by boat and brought to safety.
Then Luke returned to the house one last time to salvage whatever he could in a backpack.
“I sat on the verandah rail waiting for a boat – the water was over the top of my legs,” he said.
“Then a fella in a kayak came past with another kayak, so I jumped on it. It was probably 8.30am by then.”
In Lismore, thousands of water rescues were carried out by volunteers who banded together when it was needed.
Elissa Virtue has praised the spirit of community service that she witnessed during the rescue and in the recovery since.
This included even small acts like bringing food and water, and taking dirty washing and delivering it clean the next day, she said.
After cleaning the mud and debris from their house, Luke and Elissa, turned to help their relatives, also hard hit by floodwaters.
“We just finished cleaning up my sister’s house and we went to my mum’s house because we hadn’t been back there,” Elissa said.
“And we’re like, who are all these people in the house? They were cleaning windows, mopping floors, trying to restore the photos.
“And then that’s when we just broke down. Just the community coming together.”
