25 February 2025
In 2022, then-Corporal Brent Power saw his home town of Casino, NSW, transformed into a river of diesel, rotting animal carcasses, mould and asbestos.
His family was safe, but none escaped the destruction after one of the worst floods left parts of NSW and Queensland underwater.
“I was watching the news and could see my grandmother’s house in the background. It was flooded up to the second storey,” now-Sergeant Power said.
More than 3000 ADF personnel were deployed across northern NSW on Operation Flood Assist 2022 to help communities recover from the floods.
Sergeant Power is a preventative medicine technician. While medics deal with casualties on or off the battlefield, Sergeant Power tries to stop them from happening at all.
“People tend to only think of battle casualties and forget about disease, which can have a greater effect by magnitudes, especially after floods when nearly everything becomes contaminated,” he said.
While other soldiers went door to door making sure people were safe, Operation Flood Assist commanders and local authorities looked to Sergeant Power for guidance.
“Usually the council will provide advice about mitigating disease and infection, but when the council has been washed away, we were the ones relied upon to keep people safe,” Sergeant Power said.
'People tend to only think of battle casualties and forget about disease, which can have a greater effect by magnitudes, especially after floods.'
When he arrived in Casino, the phone was ringing off the hook with people asking all sorts of questions.
“I had commanders calling me saying they’ve got dead animals everywhere and their guys have nowhere to sleep,” Sergeant Power said.
“They wanted the legalities and specifications of carcass disposal.
“I had to go on a deep dive with the Department of Industries who got in contact with the EPA. Basically they had to rewrite the book.”
As floodwaters receded, Sergeant Power’s family and other residents of Casino were faced with piecing their town back together.
The next month, Sergeant Power and more than 700 Defence personnel who served on Operation Flood Assist marched down Casino’s main street.
More than 1000 Richmond Valley Shire residents lined the streets to say thank you to the service men and women.
Sergeant Power’s 90-year-old grandmother was evacuated to safety in Brisbane by the time the clean-up began.
“When I got a chance to talk to her, she said the ADF’s efforts in Lismore and Casino meant everything to her and the community and she will never forget their kindness,” he said.
