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stateline nsw search the abc abc home | radio | television | news | more subjects… | shop stateline home new south wales transcript archive about us stateline new south wales transcript wallsend's fortunes. broadcast: 15/06/2007 reporter: quentin dempster print   email quentin dempster: quentin in the urban areas of the hunter the clean up is also well and truly underway no more so than wallsend, south of newcastle, which suffered much devastation.the local business owners in the main street of this heritage town have rallied together in an effort to ensure their businesses survive. abc newcastle's local radio presenter simone thurtell this afternoon went back to wallsend for her afternoon broadcast. simone and her radio colleagues found themselves at the centre of a phenomenon of community spirit and crisis management from the moment the floodwaters started to build up last friday. i spoke to simone earlier today. quentin dempster: simone thurtell, everybody must be distressed at the rain and the forecast. exactly what is it for the rest of the day and into the night?simone thurtell: unfortunately, quentin, when we woke up this morning the forecast was for rain and thunderstorms this afternoon. previously, earlier this week it had been isolated showers. showers we thought maybe we could handle. but later today it is expected that it will rain again and there is thunderstorm activity predicted around this area. this is not good news, especially when this community and many communities around our region are just starting to pick themselves up.quentin dempster: wallsend is a heritage town. it is one of the worst flood affected urban communities. what are the prospects for renewal for the survival of the businesses?simone thurtell: if you speak to the people the prospects of renewal are absolutely fantastic. they have amazing spirit and fantastic resilience. that is what we are seeing as we walk up and down the street here today. the reality is that this is something that is going to be a struggle in the next couple of years. that is for sure. a lot of these businesses, especially the smaller ones possibly will not open again. but i do know that speaking to some of them up and down this main street here, nelson street of wallsend, they are determined. they are determined that the boards will come of the windows, that the glass will go back in, that the doors will reopen and it will all happen as quickly as possible.quentin dempster: what is the insurance story there? is everybody covered?simone thurtell: the problem that we have when it comes to insurance, quentin, is the difference between storm water damage and flood water damage. insurance companies, a couple of them that we know about are not paying out on flood water damage. the difference being, 75 per cent of your payment. so there is a real battle on. the local member and federal member for newcastle are battling at the moment to get all insurance companies to recognise the majority of damage in this region, in newcastle and in the hunter, also on the central coast, as storm water damage and not flood water damage.quentin dempster: it's an awful thing to have to go into a definitional dispute to get your business back, isn't it?simone thurtell: it is. and not just your business, quentin. some people... and we have heard the stories on abc local radio this week. some people lost their business, tried as hard as they could last friday night to maintain their business, to keep the water out. it didn't happen. when they went out to try and make their way home, their cars had been swept away. we are hearing this morning as many as 5000 cars have been written off just from being swept away in the storm water. once they managed to get home, their homes were flooded. it was a triple whammy. now they are fighting their insurance companies to get just a portion of that back.quentin dempster: so a little political support won't go astray there?simone thurtell: you are not wrong. and the opposition leader, kevin rudd was up here this morning. we have had all of the politicians come here, including the prime minister last sunday. we are hoping that they have seen the devastation for themselves, they have spoken to the people. we are hoping that they are going to give us now the backing that we need to rebuild our communities.quentin dempster: simone, this has been a triumph for local radio and your interaction with the community. ringing in, getting the information out. but there have been some stories of great personal courage at the height of the flooding. tell us a few of those.simone thurtell: personal courage and great community, quentin. when i was on air last friday, my shift goes from 3 'til 6 on local radio. we continued to keep broadcasting because we were hearing of flood waters, we were hearing that people were trapped and they were ringing the station. a lot of people were at home by themselves. the flood waters were rising in their houses and they didn't know what to do. they rang for companionship and they rang for directions.it was interesting, we had one lady, michelle, who rang us. she was in tears and she was hysterical when i spoke to her on air. she needed help, she needed somebody to stop and help her. within minutes, we had people calling the station to say, "let me know where she is, we will go around". and indeed, a young lady named olivia and her boyfriend went round. they dragged her out of the house and they managed to help her out and help her save some of her belongings.yesterday, i had a young man, 15 years of age by the name of matthew. he came into the studio to tell me about jumping into a storm water drain last friday afternoon, by choice because he jumped in to save 17 year old alex. alex was walking home from school, got swept into storm water and there were a lot of people on the banks, a lot of adults where were watching were very distressed obviously... had called 000. none of them jumped in, 15 year old matthew decided that he would. he couldn't let the 12 year old go under. in freezing torrents of water, he managed to hold onto alex until a couple of adults came to his rescue. we heard stories of buses with... i had a bus load of six people who were trying to get home. the bus driver stopped parallel to a man who was sitting on the roof of his car in torrents of water. they had a rope on the bus. six people on the bus threw the rope out to this man and they dragged him into the bus and saved his life ultimately. if the ses couldn't have got there, then he would have been in all sorts of trouble.and then, of course, there is the ses and people who just literally went out on jet skis and surf skis and went from car to car to rescue people, went from house to house, to make sure people in their houses were safe. if they needed transport, they took them out. we received more than 20,000 calls at 1233 abc newcastle in just two days alone. so it's been an amazing seven days for us, you'd have to say. one that we never thought that we would experience, but this community is a tight knit community. it has been a remarkable time for us, but we know that it is not done yet. especially if there is more rain to come this afternoon.quentin dempster: are there any casualties. i know there are about 10 right through the region in the floods and in the storms and the old pacific highway wash out, what about your area?simone thurtell: there will be a funeral for a young man this afternoon who got washed into storm water on last friday and that will take place in wallsend. that is another story in itself. the local funeral parlour here in wallsend... we had a former lord mayor, greg heys die early last week. he was a man who was greatly respected in this area and they held his funeral several days ago. but the funeral parlour has been able to maintain the dignity and also continue on with the services that they already had scheduled in their books despite losing a number of their cars. so again, another story where another business has recognised that they need to continue on and they need to continue the support for residents in this area.quentin dempster: you've got one of the shop owners from wallsend, max mccorkell, the owner of the base warehouse with you. can we talk to him?simone thurtell: you certainly can. max, how are you? you can see, quentin, the shop behind us. the shop windows have become the town noticeboard here in the main street of wallsend.quentin dempster: max mccorkell, tell us what happened to you and your business.max mccorkell: ah, well, quentin, the water came straight down the main street, straight through my front doors, down the middle of the shop and out the back doors and took a bit of it with it. but apart from that we are doing really well today. quentin dempster: so you are not wiped out. but there are some business that won't reopen aren't there?max mccorkell: yes, there are a lot of businesses down here. we have got the structural engineers in here right now. they are going from shop to shop checking foundations. we have got one restaurant here, destiny's, they have lost bricks off their piers that hold the floors up. we've got another building next door look at the date was 1877.the walls are all cracking and now the ground is starting to dry out the walls look like they won't stay up. we've got the engineers down here today and they are checking it all out to make sure it's safe for everyone to come back to work.quentin dempster: everyone has rushed to look at their insurance policies. is that the biggest problem for you to get back to business?max mccorkell: yes, well our insurance policy went down the river, i'm sorry to say. but i'm happy to say my insurance broker fixed us up with a copy and we are ok here.but there are a lot of shops in the main street that still don't have the information. they just don't have the lack of knowledge to cope with the situation and the things they are being told, like they are not covered. anything a person needs is hope. if you can give them hope, they're right. we are asking the insurance companies to tell us what they can do for us and basically getting up and trading again.but there are insurance companies that have walked in and said, "oh, it's flood. see you later. it's your problem."quentin dempster: is that right. was it as brutal as that?max mccorkell: it was for two of them. we are just waiting for one lady, the lady at the gift wear shop further on down with us, got flooded out. she is living with relatives with nothing, presently.her house has been totally flooded, wiped out, and the shop has been destroyed and the insurance company has told her to lock up the front doors and they will look at it later.quentin dempster: that's emotionally devastating as well as financially devastating. what can people do to keep spirits up under those circumstances?max mccorkell: i think the first thing we've got to do is look after people in the area who don't have basic things like first aid kits, clothing, food, cash in their pockets.we have a fella who live s over the road here. all he got out with is his cigarette lighter. now, we can't find him presently. he has moved on. he didn't have anywhere to live for the last couple of days. we've tried to clean out his little area out the back of the shop area, but all he wanted was his wallet, if we could find it and a couple of personal things.but there are stories all over the place of what people have lost in such a short period of time.quentin dempster: max mccorkell, good luck to you and the community. thanks very much for talking to us. qld | nsw | act | vic | tas | sa | wa | nt © 2007 abc | privacy policy

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