Lismore Mayor, Steve Krieg, has appeared on live television this morning to thank the community for its flood clean-up efforts and reject the suggestion that the city’s CBD should be rebuilt on higher ground.
“Forty years ago they tried to relocate the centre of Lismore,” the Mayor said.
“If we wanted to move, we would have moved 40 years ago. You can harp on all you want about Lismore people being stupid for living here…but this is our home.
“If this happened in Melbourne along the Yarra Valley to the extent that this event has happened to Lismore, there wouldn’t be one person saying, “we’ve got to move the Melbourne CBD”, because it’s a natural disaster – we couldn’t predict it.
“It’s exactly the same with this – this isn’t a flood. This is a natural disaster. And I’m not moving.”
Mayor Krieg appeared on Channel 9’s Today show alongside former McLeod’s Daughters actress and local resident, Bridie Carter this morning.
“We were in a housing crisis in our whole region and now, to put this on top, I don’t think anyone really knows [how long recovery will take],” Ms Carter said.
“People either couldn’t afford insurance or it wasn’t available so that’s a major problem,” she said.
“Bottom line is – what is going to move this region forward – is cash. We have so many volunteers and so many donations in food and clothing…but it is money that’s going to move things forward.”
The Mayor thanked the thousands of people who have stepped up to help with the recovery effort across the local government area.
“We are so blessed in our region – we have so many wonderful people,” said Mayor Krieg.
“Thousands of people who are making the effort, coming from everywhere to help.
“There are so many faceless angels…as Mayor of the city and as a human I just want to say thank you so much.”
