Carnarvon Shire president Eddie Smith sees silver-lining in floods

After a once-in-a-decade flood last week, you’d be forgiven for thinking Carnarvon had seen enough water, but the shire president has tipped an additional bucket of cold H2O, figuratively speaking, on locals who are critical of the emergency services response. At least 40 people were rescued by the RAC Rescue helicopter after their cars became trapped in flood waters, but some have said the Department of Fire and Emergency Services took too long to respond. Carnarvon shire president Eddie Smith said such criticism was unfounded. “DFES were basically on the ground immediately, we had guys come in from Geraldton, so I’ve got no complaint about anyone’s performance,” Smith said. “It’s a core group of people, and it’s a small group of people, who are complaining ... but if you stop to think about exactly what’s happened, they’ve got nothing to complain about.” Heavy rain from a tropical low caused flooding across the region, damaging properties, roads and crops, with the Bureau of Meteorology saying the floods were among the worst recorded in 50 years. Stretches of the North West Coastal Highway have been washed away, and surveying in the coming days will assess the damage done to the region’s pastoral road network. But Mr Smith said the damage bill would be “a lot less” than from the floods that devastated the area in 2010, which is partly due to the successful intervention of a levee system that was constructed in the wake of that disaster. In fact, the shire president, who is one of the region’s many growers, has already found a silver lining to the flood. “There is a positive, because the river flow now means we’ve got an absolute guaranteed water supply going for the next two or three years for the plantation industry and the town, and I think that’s a massive positive for us,” Smith said.