VALUABLE lessons will be learned from the experiences of the extreme weather and record flooding in the Tweed at the end of March that caught many people by surprise.

Tweed Shire Council, emergency services, the community and flood-hit residents are now grappling with the arduous task of bringing life back to normal.

Later, they will come together to find out how best to respond to flooding disasters in the future.

The Early Warning Network, a private operation based at Chinderah, was set up 10 years ago to send out alerts for floods, severe weather, bushfires, thunderstorms and tropical cyclones Australia-wide.

EWN national operations manager Michael Bath says the warnings are sourced from official agencies.

"Specific river flood warnings are generally not sent, apart from areas where an arrangement is in place with local councils to alert their residents,” he said.

Mr Bath has been "obsessed” with severe weather and flooding for more than 30 years.

"This latest flood escalated well beyond what weather models forecast, although the initial flood watch - issued March 28 - had moderate to major flooding for the Tweed,” he said.

"It ended up at the extreme end. March was generally a very wet month and every bit of rain became run-off.

"This flood was certainly the biggest one since the 1974 event.

"There hasn't been a big one for so long. Long-time residents would know about big floods, whereas newcomers weren't familiar.

"It's certainly happened before. The older people would have known about it.”

Mr Bath said individuals needed to take responsibility by having their own flood plan.

"That educational part needs to be drummed into people in flood-prone areas,” he said.

"The problem is, because the rain fell so quickly, there wasn't a lot of lead-in time for people to prepare.

"I think the warnings the bureau put out were quite accurate - it's how people interpret those warnings, 'how's that going to affect me'.”

Tweed Shire Council general manager Troy Green said the flood plain risk-management study adopted by the council in 2014 proved to be an accurate assessment of the flood risks and modelling.

"The plan provides strategies such as community education, additional warning systems, reviews of town planning controls, flood mitigation works and voluntary purchase schemes to help reduce flood risks for the community,” he said.

"We have also learnt how well council, state and federal agencies, not-for-profit organisations and the community all work together to respond to the many diverse issues and needs in a time of crisis.

"The amount of rainfall and the height and rate of river rise was unprecedented in recorded history in the valley.

"Council acknowledges that predicting an event like this is an extremely difficult task, particularly given the relatively small catchments upstream of Murwillumbah.

"Extreme weather systems such as cyclones prove difficult to predict.”

Mr Green said the overall response to the floods was a very efficient operation, given the size, scale and impact of the event.

"As an indication, in a two-week period, we collected and disposed of over three times the annual shire-wide kerbside waste collection,” he said.

"I am proud of the many staff of council who worked around the clock to restore essential services like water and wastewater and to restore access to the road network,” he said.

"I am also proud of the many volunteers and emergency services personnel who worked tirelessly during and post the event.

"As a community, we can be proud at this time of adversity we pulled together and supported each other.”

"There are so many examples of business helping business, stranger helping stranger. This is a big underlying story that needs to be told. It's one which demonstrates the hope, determination, mateship and resilience of our community.”

With funding assistance from higher levels of government, council will be able to implement the adopted strategies from the flood plain risk management study and plan.

"These measures are long-term and require commitments from all tiers of government and consultation with the community for them to succeed, Mr Green said.

On the night of Thursday, March 30, tens of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate areas of northern NSW, with the SES warning of "unprecedented” flooding in the region, including in Murwillumbah and Chinderah.

Affected were Murwillumbah CBD and Murwillumbah south and east, Condong and Tumbulgum areas, Chinderah, Kingscliff, Fingal Head and Bilambil, Tweed Heads, Tweed Heads South and West.

A NSW SES representative said the emergency service from March 28 onwards encouraged residents to prepare for heavy rain and flooding.

"Several doorknocking activities were also carried out to alert people of the impending flooding and emergency alerts were issued to residents' mobile phones and landlines to advise them of the evacuation warnings and orders as they were issued.

"The NSW SES prepares its operational response to severe weather based on the forecasts it receives from the Bureau of Meteorology,” the representative said.

"The forecast information the NSW SES initially received indicated the flooding effects would not be as severe as was eventually experienced in the Northern Rivers district.

"As the event unfolded and the true nature of the severe weather was realised, the NSW SES moved quickly to prepare local communities with the updated information.”

The NSW SES spokesperson said the service would continue to engage with communities in flood-prone areas to ensure that people were more aware of their flood risk and how to act when warnings were issued.

”This flood has been unprecedented and has affected many people across northern NSW, including our local volunteers who sacrificed their time from family and work to help their community, even when their own properties may have been affected,” the spokesperson said.

”The NSW SES continues to support these flood-affected communities to ensure they get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

”The NSW SES is also continuing to support its volunteers who have been working tirelessly through this major flood event.

”They are highly trained professionals who are dedicated to their communities so it's important that people continue to show their support for them.”　

Some residents chose not to leave their homes when they were advised to because they didn't expect the flood to be as severe as it was.

That's a lesson learned.