YOUR STORY: Flood warnings ignored, now people pay the price

IT comes as no surprise that Cumbalum residents and other users of the Ballina Bypass Pacific Highway underpass in Tamarind Drive are up in arms over widespread flooding in recent storms and the East Coast low (NS 16/5).

But why all the fuss of remedial work centred solely on Cumbalum when the Tintenbar valley just a little further north endured a far worse fate as storm water again pounded down from new highways and housing across farmland, roadways and access points into the bottlenecked Emigrant Creek?

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What credence can be given to floodplain modelling when a newly devised impact, only now being felt from an eight lane highway and ancillary road as far afield as Newrybar, powers down the entire Emigrant Creek catchment and combines with that from the rapidly expanding Cumbalum housing estate that is sprawling its way northward to the Tintenbar/Ross Lane interchange, exacerbating the problem.

In this respect let's not forget the few original valley farmers left standing alone, during extensive floodplain acquisition, after pleading for sanity to no avail in their desperate battle against floodwater inundation immediately the highway route was announced.

Predictions of such flooding were hammered home at separate flood study meetings to both the former RTA and Ballina Shire Council.

This was long before the Cumbalum area was ruthlessly added to a half century hit list of relentless alterations, blockages and flood water diversions throughout the Emigrant Creek and Ballina floodplains.

Landholders watched in increasing horror as the Cumbalum valley still fell foul to a disastrous landfill across its length and breadth for the Ballina Bypass and Cumbalum Sports Field Complex.

What remains to be seen is whether remediation to this man-made fiasco will be directed to those land holders already savaged, or will the movement of the floodwaters be prioritised for the benefit of new development to the further detriment of long-term residents.