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A mayor was left squirming on national TV over why houses on only one side of a street have been left at the mercy of rising floodwaters.
The northern Victorian town of Echuca has been divided by a hastily constructed dirt levee, which effectively sacrifices houses on the ‘wrong side’ of the wall to expected flooding.
Echuca mayor Chrissy Weller was confronted about this on Monday morning by Today Show host Karl Stefanovic and furious resident Nick Dean, who said his side of the street had been ‘cast to the wolves’.
A hastily constructed dirt levee dividing the Victorian town of Echuca has left houses on the ‘wrong side’ at the mercy of expected rising floodwaters
When Stefanovic pressed her on why this was allowed to occur Cr Weller said she ‘didn’t even get asked’ and the decision was made by a Victorian State Emergency Services emergency manager.
‘We are just one of the agencies that support the whole thing, so, you know, the orders come from above us,’ Cr Weller said.
Mr Dean described this reaction as a passing on of responsibility and accountability.
‘It is lovely to have a handball on the mayor’s behalf… be able to handball it to someone else,’ he said.
Stefanovic told Cr Weller his program had talked to ‘dozens of residents’ and what upset them ‘was a complete and utter lack of empathy’ from council.
Furious Echuca resident Nick Dean says those on the ‘wrong side’ of the wall are ‘sacrificial lambs’
When grilled on whether she had visited the affected residents, Cr Weller was forced to admit she hadn’t.
She offered the excuse that she had been busy in the nearby town of Rochester where ‘900 homes and the whole town was lost’.
Stefanovic was not impressed, saying even if the mayor had been ‘flat out’ someone should have been consoling those about to lose their homes.
‘They have had an order thrust upon them that basically means their homes are done, and yet there has been no-one from local council go down there and at least wrap their arms around them?’ Stefanovic asked in disbelief.
‘I mean, come on.’
Mr Dean confirmed he had not heard from council.
‘It is disappointing, Karl,’ he said.
‘The best isn’t good enough. If my dog was barking at night I would have council here tomorrow.’
Today show host Karl Stefanovic was far from impressed with the Echuca mayor Chissy Weller’s (pictured top right) responses
The mayor said she and council ‘were doing our best’.
Mr Dean gave an impassioned response.
‘My house is about to go under water,’ he said.
‘Everything I have worked for my whole life is about to be drowned and they are doing their best?
‘I’m sorry, mate, it is crap and everyone in Australia should be really frightened because the ivory towers will sink you every time.
‘We are on our own. You think you are covered. You think you have got help.
‘We have just been cast to the wolves, we are the sacrificial lamb. It is not good enough, councillor, enough is enough.’
Mr Dean, who has lived in Echuca all his life, said the floods were not a one-off event and a permanent levee had been previously proposed to protect the whole town.
‘Since the ’73 floods I know for a fact that the funding was there to build the levee bank to protect all of these homes, it was never done,’ he said.
‘I have seen the plans myself.’
Mr Dean said the money had instead been spent on the town’s port.
‘We just don’t seem to be learning from our mistakes,’ he said.
‘I just hope that after this one they… when they pull this levee bank up that is dividing the town, that commonsense prevails.
Echuca residents who are set to lose their houses because they are on the ‘wrong side’ of the dirt levee say there has been no support from council
‘I’m afraid commonsense is a rarity these days, but commonsense prevails and they put that bank around behind these houses to future-proof everyone. Not just the few.’
Cr Weller said any levee proposals had been ‘before her time’.
‘I wouldn’t be able to even answer or know what those decisions were about that time,’ she said.
Echuca, which is about 250km north of Melbourne, is facing its second flooding in the space of seven days with the Murray river expected to breach a near 30-year high later this week.
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