That is the aim of Edward River Council as flood warnings continue to flow in for the region.
Council kickstarted this process with a Flood Wellness and Preparedness Information Session held in Deniliquin Tuesday last week.
A panel consisting of representatives of council, SES, Murrumbidgee Local Health District, Resilience NSW and Rural Fire Services addressed those in attendance, providing clarification of the current situation and what may occur in the near future.
Other agencies included were the Deniliquin Local Aboriginal Land Council, Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre, the Australian Defence Force, Red Cross, NSW Maritime and the National Management Agency.
All of the panel members who addressed questions from the community emphasised the current flooding would not be over in the short term, with expectations there could be flooding through the remainder of 2022.
They provided updates, as well as information on how to stay informed and request assistance as required.
Mayor Peta Betts said while held weeks after flooding started to impact on the community, the meeting was intended to "remind you that these floods are going to be around potentially for a little while to come yet“.
“We just want to make sure that everybody is prepared, everybody has an understanding of what’s going on and if they don’t, where they can get that information”.
Cr Betts said 18 different response agencies are working out of the emergency operations centre at Deniliquin Airport, all working together not just for our community but for our neighbours as well.
In starting the panel presentations, council director of infrastructure Mark Dalzell said the community would be aware that it takes a lot of resources to fight any emergency.
He stated that the SES and RFS were the main agencies in charge of the current flooding situation, but they need a lot of support and a lot of coordination from other agencies.
Mr Dalzell said having the base located in Deniliquin provided emergency services personnel and other coordinating agencies to set up away from where all the action was happening.
“It’s function is to gather data,” Mr Dalzell said.
“The centre here in Deniliquin is supporting not only the Edward River area but also the Murray River area.
“The flooding that’s happening down in Moama, happening down in Barham, is being supported out of Deniliquin here, as well as when the flood goes downstream.”
Council general manager Phil Stone said ERC’s flood action plan has been in play for several weeks, highlighting that Deniliquin and the surrounding area had received almost half of its an annual rainfall in October alone.
He said in addition to flooding rivers, it has created issues of localised flooding.
Mr Dalzell said the silver lining is the data collated form previous flood events, contributing to vital flood intelligence.
"Everyone’s aware of the levy system and the culverts through the levee system,“ he said.
“A lot of work to date has been done as the river’s been coming up, closing those culverts so the flood water doesn’t come in.
“With the recent rain we’ve had to put pumps in to get that water back out and with the level of rain we’ve had that’s been quite a job to do.”
Mr Stone said the levee system’s free boards would not come in until the Edward River reaches major flood level (9.2m).
“It’s still at a moderate level. but we are getting this ready in case we need to implement them.”
Cr Betts offered a final message for the community to “stay informed, be prepared and stay safe”.
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