Victims of last year's Victorian floods say they have felt abandoned sharing their devastation and anger during the first two days of a parliamentary inquiry into the disaster. The inquiry opened this week in Rochester and Echuca two of the hardest hit towns and heard that both communities are still recovering ten months on.
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00:00 This is into the kitchen.
00:04 Rochester resident Lynn Francis has spent the 10 months since October's devastating
00:08 floods living in temporary accommodation, waiting for her house to be repaired.
00:13 It's still not ready.
00:14 It's a horrible feeling having a house but not being able to go back to.
00:18 She says she feels abandoned by the authorities.
00:21 It was a common theme when the parliamentary inquiry into the floods held its first hearing
00:25 in Rochester this week.
00:26 It's an overflow of emotion because this is a very important day.
00:29 Not everyone gets an opportunity to speak.
00:32 We're all acutely aware that we needed to make sure that the voices of many were heard
00:37 in our state.
00:38 Witnesses in Rochester spoke of a feeling of betrayal when at the height of the disaster
00:43 they watched the army drive past their town.
00:45 We're watching Chinook helicopters fly over Rochester to other areas.
00:49 We'd had our disaster, we didn't have any support.
00:53 The Echuca hearing heard the impact on primary industries has run into hundreds of millions
00:57 of dollars.
00:58 Dairy farmer Tom Acox says he's still in recovery mode.
01:01 Every single animal on the farm stood in some amount of water for some sort of period of
01:07 time.
01:08 We've still got animals now that have affected ten months on.
01:10 The inquiry heard evidence that planning for the disaster was inadequate and warnings were
01:14 confusing.
01:15 Perhaps some of the apps that are available, which are run by the government, haven't provided
01:20 the most up to date information and most accurate information, which is so important in an emergency.
01:27 It's about day four, five, six maybe before we started getting proper briefings of what
01:32 was going on, who was in charge, what channel we were supposed to be on on the radios.
01:36 The inquiry will now move to Shepparton and Seymour next month before wrapping up with
01:39 two days of hearings in Melbourne in October.
01:42 The report is due by June next year.
01:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]