Flood, rebuild, rinse and repeat: Life on the frontlines of Australia’s extreme weather events

Australians are getting used to checking the radar before they check the news. From Far North Queensland to Gippsland, communities are being hammered by floods, storms and cyclones. The frequency of extreme weather events has meant many have had little time to recover. 

On the Mid North Coast of NSW, residents like Martina Dezani have already endured three floods this year. Household budgets are being stretched beyond their limit as families are left to rebuild, again and again. 

Scientists say warmer oceans off Australia’s East Coast are fuelling the heavier downpours.

“I’m so over it,” Kempsey Shire resident Dezani told the Mid North Coaster on Wednesday as she braced for the third flood of the year. “I feel like, ‘How much more can we take?’ It's just constant flood, cyclone, cyclone, flood, flash floods, storms.”

Dezani lives in Smithtown – a floodplain in Kempsey Shire. Growing up in the area, she was prepared for floods, but not this often.

“We’re meant to have more time in-between,” she said. “My experience of Smithtown [was] that it floods once every two years, or once every four years, not once every two months. We’re not getting that time in-between.”

The mother of three said she was “exhausted” with the thought of going through yet another severe weather event so soon after the last.

“It's not the flood, it's not the water. It's more just the emotional and financial load of it happening, again.

The rise in cost of living is putting pressure on households across the Mid North Coast. Insurance is not an option for some homeowners as it is either too expensive or not available, leaving them to find money for repairs while preparing for the next event.

For example, Dezani talks of having to find money not in the household budget to cover extra supplies, in preparation for her home flooding, roads being cut off and/or potential power outages. 

She recently replanted her veggie gardens and replaced furniture destroyed in the previous flood, but is worried she’s about to lose it all again.

As of 7am on Thursday, Dezani’s yard was already underwater.

“If it rains as much as they're saying it's going to rain … my house will flood,” she said. “The downstairs will have water come in it.”

In Smithtown, Dezani says, those on low lying ground take whatever precautions they can. 

“We lift things up off the ground floor, we tie our bins down, we move our cars to the high bridge, we sandbag … but there’s an emotional toll of having to do all this, again.”

The Mid North Coast felt the impacts of ex-tropical Cyclone Alfred in March, with parts of the region experiencing flooding. 

In May record-breaking floods damaged thousands of properties, some of those still recovering from the previous severe weather event.

At the start of August, the MNC experienced a storm that damaged properties and left more than 30,000 homes and businesses without power for days. The wild weather once again led to flooding in the southern part of the region.

Councillor at Climate Council of Australia, Professor Emeritus David Karoly, tells the Mid North Coaster that the rise in ocean temperatures is behind the increased rainfall.

“Ocean temperatures to the east of Australia have been much above normal since 2024. Which leads to much above normal moisture in the air and increased rainfall for trade winds blowing off the ocean onto the coast.”

The Bureau of Meteorology's long range forecast, issued on August 14, predicts the rainfall from September to November  is “very likely” to be above average across most of eastern Australia.