EVERYTHING was covered in mud.
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Caravans were tipped over, people's belongings absolutely destroyed and the Lismore community devastated by relentless floods.
It was Tamworth Fire and Rescue NSW firefighter Sonja Mariner's first strike team experience, and one she definitely won't forget.
"Looking at all the devastation and imagining where the water was, it's hard to see that and be in these people's houses and hear their stories," she said.
"We met a lady from the caravan park who was trapped inside while the water rose - it just breaks your heart to hear their stories and throw everything they have out onto the street because it's all ruined."
Ms Mariner was one of a team from Tamworth deployed to help the northern NSW community get back on its feet.
Many of the families and people she helped hadn't yet been reached by emergency services or volunteers, with damage as high as two to three storeys in some places.
Being one of the first on scene was a humbling experience, she said.
"People saw us and they just broke down, they were quite emotional and everyone thanked us for leaving our families and our jobs to go and help them," she said.
"They were really appreciative, I hadn't done anything like that before so to go and help these people, to give what we could and see how appreciative and loving they were it was really good to see."
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It's not the first time Lismore has seen devastation caused by floods.
In March 2017, the levee banks broke causing one of the most damaging floods in living memory - until now.
Since then, the local council has launched a Flood Ready project to develop a community-wide plan to deal with natural disasters - but nothing could have prepared the town for the absolute carnage caused by the most recent event.
Tamworth on-call firefighter Malachii Schofield was part of the 2017 response, and said the level of destruction in 2022 was shocking.
"Comparing the 2017 and the 2022 floods, it's next level," he said.
"It was nothing like the work we were doing back then, we were hosing out houses and nothing could be saved.
"We cleaned out about 76 caravans in about two days, people needed serious help especially with a lot of elderly and retired people it was really sad to see - their whole lives were in these places.
"It was hard to walk away from those people who needed us there."
The firefighters stayed in a makeshift tent-city while cleaning up after the Lismore floods, some for a week and others for up to 12 days.
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