The 12-month anniversary of the April superstorm is looming, but there are still five households who are not living back in their homes.
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There are also four households living in their previously damaged homes, but the work has yet to be completed. With 192 adults and 56 children displaced or affected initially by the superstorm, Dungog Shire Community Centre was at the fore of the disaster.
There were no communications in the shire for nearly 30 hours and emergency services were severely impacted.
Centre manager Sarah U’Brien said she was in awe of how the town bandied together in the early days to help those affected.
“People just pitched in and helped where they were needed,” she said. “Everyone just did what they had to do to make sure these people had food, clean clothes, a dry bed and a shoulder to cry on. But we still have 52 open client files we are still in contact with either on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
“It could be to do with building matters or finding the right emotional support for their well-being. Once the physical work is done then the emotional recovery begins. And there is no time frame to work through that.”
Over the past nine months the community centre has been working with Dungog Lions, Dungog Rotary and the Dungog Natural Disasters Appeals Fund to provide practical, relevant and beneficial monetary aid to people affected by the severe weather event of April 21 last year.
Over this time $170,000 has been distributed.
