‘WE WON’T STOP UNTIL EVERYONE IS SAFE’
JESSICA AND MICHAEL LOST THEIR HOME, BUT USED THEIR CHOPPER TO RESCUE OTHERS
It’s difficult to hear Jessica Barnes over the loud burr of helicopter rotors. “We’re still sending food out,” she shouts from a hangar in Lismore Airport, northern NSW.
“We’ve just loaded up the next helicopter to head out to an indigenous community up in the hills.”
Jessica, 29, and her pilot husband Michael, 32, run two aviation businesses, Fly Byron and Rotorwing Helicopter Services.
But for the past three weeks they’ve worked round the clock in extreme weather conditions, rescuing people from rooftops and delivering life-saving supplies to communities still cut off by the floods.
Their rescue mission began on February 28 when they had to pluck their own children, Bailey, 2, and Beau, 1, from their beds to escape the rising water at their home.
“At 5.30am my husband ran in and said, ‘You’ve got 30 seconds to get the kids. Forget your shoes,’” recalls Jessica.
The flood had already reached the belly of the helicopter and they had mere minutes to escape.
“The kids were still in their PJS, I just ripped them out of bed and put them in life jackets. The helicopter was about 150 metres away
‘MY HUSBAND SAID, “YOU’VE GOT 30 SECONDS TO GET THE KIDS. FORGET YOUR SHOES”’
on a large mound. We couldn’t get across by foot, but our neighbour had a small tinnie, so we all jumped in that and went across to the helicopter.
“We watched our hangar be torn apart by the water.
All the doors ripped off.”
Michael flew Jessica and the kids to a nearby Westpac helicopter base for shelter, but it wasn’t long before he was up in the skies again.
“My husband went and picked up a Rural Fire Service crew from a roof. After that it was just evacuation flight after evacuation flight. It was just chaos, absolute chaos.”
Desperate cries for help began to pour in and the community rallied. A fleet of helicopter owners, pilots and
crew put their hands up and combined forces to assist with the rescue efforts. As the days wore on, a pseudo-operational, volunteer base sprung up in Jessica and Michael’s previously flooded hangar.
Jessica is still haunted by the harrowing calls and messages they received on the first day.
“We had people begging to be rescued off their roofs. Unfortunately, as much as we wanted to help everyone, we were flat out.
“Hearing of families stuck on roofs, but all you can do is try and get the agencies to help them – it breaks your heart,” Jessica tells New Idea.
The civilian pilots carried out 100 rescues, including a heavily pregnant woman who was in labour. Another man was desperate to see his terminally ill wife in hospital one last time.
“That was really sad, but he jumped in a helicopter and was able to get to hospital to say goodbye,” says Jessica.
The team at Rotorwing hangar also conducted more than 250 essential food and medical supply airdrops.
“We’re still delivering food, water, medical supplies, generators, fuel, pumps and Gernis. We’ve evacuated animals, we’ve flown vets around – everything you can imagine,” explains Jessica.
After fleeing their own home, Jessica took the
children to stay with family in Melbourne for a few days so she could focus on coordinating the rescues remotely.
“There were about 12 civilian helicopters involved. I was just calling everyone, tasking everyone, moving all the helicopters around. We all worked together,” explains Jessica.
Her mum, Susan, is currently in Lismore looking after Bailey and Beau so Jessica can man the phone, which rings constantly.
Ashlee Jones, Jessica’s best friend, has also worked tirelessly as a volunteer air-traffic controller and donation coordinator.
“We’d weigh everything out so it wasn’t a risk and then it would get loaded into the helicopter,” says Jessica.
Local pilots, including Michael, then used their own helicopters to carry out lifesaving rescues or supply drops.
“One pilot, Mark Wright, couldn’t get to a site. So he landed in a paddock a kilometre away, grabbed a wheelbarrow and walked the food and medical supplies through floodwaters.
“It blows my mind the way the community has come together, it warms your heart.
“At one stage, we had approximately $2 million worth of donations in our hangar. Everyone’s effort was sensational.”
Although government agencies have started to take over the relief effort, there’s still an enormous amount of recovery to be done.
“Families are still living in evacuation centres,” says Jessica.
Meanwhile, she and Michael have been too busy helping others to sit down and process their own loss and trauma.
“We’re exhausted, but we’ll keep going until we can make sure that everyone has what they need. Then we can start going through our own stuff.
“Our house will have to be bulldozed, unfortunately. But we’ve got our family and that’s all that matters.
“At the end of the day, we’ll keep banding together to help the community. We wouldn’t forgive ourselves if we didn’t help people.”