MAYORAL MESSAGE with Cr Katie Milne

THE Flood Recovery Centre is scheduled to close this week unless the numbers increase significantly, so make the most of this handy face-to-face service while it's still in town. It's important to get help both financially and emotionally if you need it as the stress can be very difficult and put a terrible strain on relationships.

As we rebuild, we can grow stronger and more resilient to these types of floods if we adapt our properties even with a few simple measures. We will never stop floodwaters but we can be better prepared and soften the impact.

There are lots of very creative ideas on the internet for flood-resilient properties such as installing flood doors, flood barriers, air brick covers, pointing or waterproofing brickwork, non-return valves, hard flooring, waterproof walls, moving electrics to a higher level on the wall, use of appropriate materials for furniture. There are even pumps and drainage systems that can be installed internally. Whole house raising is a key option.

Another tragedy of the floods is the amount of waste that ended up in our poor river and in the landfill. We all need to be more careful with ground floor storage. There were quite a few water tanks washed away too. Tying things down could help.

One of the things that really worries me is the people of Tweed Heads and Banora. I hope they don't develop a false sense of security because they weren't badly affected by this big flood. I was told by the Tweed Heads SES Unit controller that if the storm was just a few kilometres east it would have hit Tweed and Banora communities very badly.

Whilst we can't attribute any single event to climate change, the pattern of our weather does follow all the warnings of more severe and unpredictable weather events. Unless we address our impact on the planet with the utmost priority, and stop wasting money on non-essential things, we are destining our children to a very uncertain future.

I was very pleased that at the April council meeting the majority of councillors agreed to become a signatory to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. This is an important step in the right direction but needs a budget commitment to be effective. Council has just experienced a massive 300% increase in our electricity rate,so becoming sustainable and self sufficient in renewable energy suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Warm regards,

Mayor Katie Milne