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]
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