Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Lismore starts clean-up after surviving the “most savage flood in living memory”

byEmilie Ng
4 April 2017 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Trinity Catholic College

School surrounded: Flood waters engulf the St Joseph’s site at Trinity Catholic College, one of the worst hit schools in Lismore.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
St Carthage's Cathedral Lismore
Cathedral surrounded: St Carthage’s Cathedral caught up in the flooding in Lismore. Photo: Supplied.

LISMORE priest Fr Peter Karam has not seen anything like the 2017 flood that inundated his South Lismore church and school.

Fr Karam was emotional as he ventured inside Our Lady Help of Christians Church.

All the furnishings, with the exception of the pews, have been damaged or destroyed, putting a major curtail on the parish’s Easter celebrations.

“It’s the most savage and devastating flood in living memory,” Fr Karam said.

Our Lady Help of Christians parish school was not safe either with “enormous” damage affecting furnishings and damaging “beyond repair” the school’s IT equipment.

Families brought their young children to save what was left of the battered region.

“A huge contingent of helpers washed, scraped, pressure-cleaned, carried and dumped debris,” Fr Karam said.

“Then it was off to the church for the same hours and tasks to clean and wash before the mud set, ensuring that we could worship together at Easter and honour the memory of those parishioners, religious and clergy who have maintained the church since its opening in 1941.

“But what a setting for a renewed belief in the resurrection of Easter faith.”

South Lismore church
Flooding aftermath: Families from the Our Lady Help of Christians parish assist with the clean-up at their beloved church. Everything was destroyed or damaged except for the pews. Photo: Fr Peter Karam.

Murwillumbah parish priest Fr Anthony Lemon grew up in Lismore and is “no stranger to floods and the suffering they bring”.

Related Stories

Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

Flood brings nightmare to many streets on dark night

Sir Peter Cosgrove talks information age Church, Ukraine and head of state with Catholic professionals

He would watch families lose everything from his parents’ house on the top of a hill.

This time Fr Lemon was seeing the devastation take place in his own parish community.

“Many of our parishioners have lost everything,” he said. “Homes and businesses that have never been flooded, flooded this time.

“The look of horror and shock on people’s faces as we washed out the basements to get an access into the school was deeply saddening.

“School records computers, library staff room, main office, and sports room, canteen toilets – all ruined.”

Click to Tweet: Lismore priest calls recent flood “the most savage and devastating in living memory’ http://bit.ly/2owiRre via @thecatholiclead

South Murwillumbah was also hit hard, with people losing cars, bikes and furniture, and businesses losing entire premises.

One man died in a caravan park and several others were hospitalised.

In Burringbar, south-east of Murwillumbah, some elderly have lost all their possessions and their homes “with no means of starting over”.

“Little ones were shoved up into roof cavities as the water roared around them threating to wash their houses away,” Fr Lemon said.

But out of the darkness there is light.

“On the upside our parish provided the evacuation centre, and the goodwill of strangers and simple people who want to help is truly amazing,” Fr Lemon said. “The people who have been housed there will know that the Christian family of Murwillumbah cared.”

South Murbah church
Damaged property: The sign for Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church at South Murwillumbah fell over as the flood rushed through Lismore. Photo: Supplied.

For Fr Karam, the mental stress was “beyond calculation” but the South Lismore parish priest said the town had emerged stronger than before.

“A positive aspect of all of this has been people rallying to assist, encourage and reconnect,” he said. “I believe we will have a stronger community here in Lismore in the wake of this tragedy.

Trinity Catholic College clean-up
Major
cleanup: Members of the Trinity Catholic College community help with the clean-up after floodwaters have receded from around the school.

“There is an old maxim: ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’.

“This surely attests to the courage and strength of many communities who have also been challenged by these sad days.”

Four schools in the city of Lismore are closed until further notice, including Trinity Catholic College; St John’s College, Woodlawn; and St Carthage’s Primary.

Trinity Catholic College sits near the Wilsons River, which spilled over into the school precinct destroying items inside classrooms and offices.

Many students live on farming properties and are still isolated by the flood.

In Murwillumbah – Mount St Patrick College, Mount St Patrick Primary and St Joseph’s Primary – were forced to close.

The schoolyard at St Joseph’s Primary, Coraki, was submerged but classrooms were out of action, and St Joseph’s Primary, Woodburn, also closed.

Lismore’s Catholic Schools Office director David Condon advised parents only send children to school if there were no threats to their safety.

“All schools will open as soon as humanly possible but damage has been such that a number of schools may not re-open until the beginning of Term 2,” Mr Condon said.

The diocese’s new Bishop Gregory Homeming was on the ground assisting people affected by the floods.

The St Vincent de Paul Society in New South Wales launched an emergency flood appeal for the Northern Rivers in the wake of the big clean-up.

The society is asking people to give financial donations that will be used by the charity’s volunteers to support people devastated by the flood.

NSW state council president Denis Walsh said in a Vinnies eNewsletter that the charity could only help if the public gave generously.

Trinity Catholic College
School surrounded: Flood waters engulf the St Joseph’s site at Trinity Catholic College, one of the worst hit schools in Lismore.
ShareTweet
Previous Post

A chat with One Nation Queensland leader Steve Dickson

Next Post

Farming family who were stranded on their truck in the flood return home to find clean-up support from Beaudesert parishioners

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport
QLD

Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

16 May 2022
Flood brings nightmare to many streets on dark night
Australia

Flood brings nightmare to many streets on dark night

5 April 2022
Sir Peter Cosgrove talks information age Church, Ukraine and head of state with Catholic professionals
QLD

Sir Peter Cosgrove talks information age Church, Ukraine and head of state with Catholic professionals

29 March 2022
Next Post
Family rescued from floodwaters

Farming family who were stranded on their truck in the flood return home to find clean-up support from Beaudesert parishioners

Rockhampton roads flooded

Rockhampton preparing for swamped Easter as floodwaters expected to rise

Euthanasia challenges

Legalised euthanasia is a 'slippery slope' for the vulnerable, Bill Muehlenberg says

Popular News

  • Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turned 95 on a ‘very happy’ day

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Hearts ‘fused’ together living their vocation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning
QLD

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

by Staff writers
19 May 2022
0

CHRISTIAN Brother Alan Moss was remembered by his friends, family and fellow brothers for his gifted mind,...

Catholic relationship advisers offer five tips to look after your mental health

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

19 May 2022
Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

19 May 2022
Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

18 May 2022
Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

18 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping