Flood relief- Beds for Lismore

Saturday 19th March, 2022. That was a hard day.

Why? Because this is the date Jack and I drove through Lismore, during our trip to Byron Bay. It was just over 2 weeks since the first floods hit.

It’s an odd feeling going through a town after disaster has torn through it. I think it was grief.
Grief for the people and animals that had lost their lives as a result. Grief for the families who had just been utterly devastated at how quickly the water rose, swallowing up their homes and spitting out their possessions in a muddy, smashed pile. Grief for the fact that I had never actually visited Lismore before, and the town that once stood there, was no more.

 

I was sobbing the whole time. And to be honest, it was the first time I had been brought to tears by a natural disaster.

Driving through the town’s center, we noticed shops were bordered up. Some with shattered windows. The footpaths and roads were brown with dried up mud. A few utes drove through with supplies and cleaning materials, but the only sign of activity we saw was a family hosing down their grimy driveway. The backdrop of their 2-storey house scarred with mud all the way up to the roof provided an astonishing impression of how intense it had been, just a few days earlier.

There were abandoned cars on the side of the road, windscreens smashed. Garbage strewn through trees and nestled in the highest branches. Street signs and fences were laden in swamp matter, a concrete road was literally broken in half from the sheer pressure of the water.

 

Piles upon piles of browned possessions. Picture frames, books, toys, dining sets, fridges, furniture, mattresses. More mattresses. In fact, majority of the wreckage we saw had one or two sludgy bases or mattresses sitting atop.

 

That’s when I had a little thought. ‘I wonder if I can raise money to supply these families with some new bedding’.

The population of Lismore is roughly 28,000. Let’s say half the population’s properties were damaged by the floods, hypothetically. And then let’s just say half of THEM lost their bed in the disaster. That is a (very rough) estimate of 7,000 people without a comfy place to rest their head at night. 

I’m aiming to raise $20,000 to provide bedding for the families of Lismore and surrounds. I have contacted a bedding supply store in Ballina (about 35km from Lismore) and they have generously agreed to supply stock at discounted prices.

How your funds help: Your money will go directly to purchasing bedding, which will then be delivered to a local distribution centre, for families of Lismore to collect. It's real and it's direct.

 

With everyone’s help, hopefully we can support these people who have lost everything. Please consider making a donation, no matter how great or small, whether it’s $5, $10, $20 or $200. It will make a difference, I promise.

 

Let’s do the stuff that matters.