Road to Recovery: Titans hear stories of flood impacted communities

The road to recovery continues for much of South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales after the extreme flood event that impacted communities last month.

While the water has subsided, the clean up and rebuild is only beginning.

Along the journey, the Titans are there to support those in their community from Logan to Lismore.

Over the last fortnight, Titans football and community staff have been assisting with the recovery across Lismore, Woodburn, Wardell and Burringbar.

Players including Brian Kelly, AJ Brimson and Aaron Booth have been visiting the regions hardest hit to assist with the clean up on their days off from training.

Rugby league immortal Mal Meninga and Titans Chairman Dennis Watt have spent time in the region and apart from rolling up the sleeves, they've also heard some incredible stories of resilience from those in our community.

One of those stories came from Josh McCormack.  

Josh and his family are from Woodburn, a town of 750 people nestled in a bend of the Richmond River in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.

This is his story, as told to our Chairman Dennis Watt.

"There was some touch and go moments with some locals and we are lucky that everyone survived," Josh said.

"I guess the clean-up effort continues and we are just grateful for all of the help and support that we can get.

"There wasn't very many people that weren't effected and it is far reaching too.

"To go to nearly two metres bigger in Woodburn in town than the biggest flood on record in 1954 was something that nobody would have expected.

"It's just a vast amount of land to cover with water.

"Mum and dad's house, we didn't expect it to go as high as it did, and at 10pm on Monday night we had a boat tied to the house as an escape route.  We had to go and how quick it rose also took us by surprise, we jumped out of bed at 10 and were out of the house and in four inches of water by 10:15.

"My mum, my dad and our two dogs, we motored across what was our lawn and navigated through some sheds and we actually tied the boat to a cattle truck overnight.

"The dogs stayed in the back of the cattle truck, mum and dad jumped in the cab and I stayed in the boat and then at about 5am the water started going into the truck.

"We rang for some help and we were lucky that we were in a boat, but there were locals that weren't so lucky and were sitting on kitchen tables or standing in the back of utes with water up to their waste.

"There were so many locals (that have chipped in and helped) and that was the overwhelming part for me.

"It was so unprecedented and unexpected and we've seen friends, old and new, come from far and wide."  

Josh was appreciative of the help given by Titans admin and football staff in helping with the clean-up in his area.

The Titans continue to hear stories like Josh's as we travel throughout our communities.

This week, as part of the NRL's Roads to Regions initiative, the Titans have had NRL and NRLW players as well as ambassadors Preston Campbell and Anthony Don visiting Kyogle, Casino and the Lismore region.