FOCUS ON THE PROPERTY MANAGERS
It took Ray White Lismore property managers Kylie Paget and Sam Cheli two days to call all their tenants to make sure they were safe and to see what condition the rentals were in , then following up with the owners to let them know the news . It was a mammoth task for the two who were also helping to clean up the flood damaged Ray White Lismore office .
There were many relieved owners but also a lot of bad news for the team to hand out . At one point they reached out to an owner who was themselves waiting to be saved from the flooding .
“ I received happy responses from owners to know their property was safe from storm and flood damage in the beginning , only to reach out to an owner who was waiting to be saved from the flood himself ,” she said .
“ Emergency services were five hours away at the least and I can honestly say I just wasn ’ t expecting that from an owner , my calls to owners were halted until I knew this family was saved .”
In the end it was social media that saved the day . After many calls to SES and 000 they were rescued off the back of a post to the Lismore Resilient Facebook page . And just in time too , the family were reaching for the roof of their home for safety and their phone battery was low .
It was just the start of a lengthy workload about to come to the office ’ s doorstep , all while trying to clean up and rebuild their premises in Lismore .
“ We had stories from survivors coming through , one tenant swam through floodwaters to save their neighbour and get them to the roof ,” Kylie said .
“ One couple were sitting on a bench with their bub not knowing how to get out , there was someone in an area where you might get a metre of water but ended up having water stream into their upstairs unit with no way out .
“ The mindset during these times has been testing but thankfully we have the understanding of our work family and we ’ re all in this together .”
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