It's been a year today since the ACT, NSW and Victoria went into lockdown.
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Parents were told to keep their children home, non essential services were shut and we all discovered new words like social distancing and covid-safe. You know how the drill goes and how it ended (or still continues).
One year on and it's the same but different. Though, this time it's not coronavirus that has us all in a state of anxiety but life endangering floods across much of NSW and parts of Queensland.
Victoria is perhaps feeling a touch smug with Ballarat having a high of 19 degrees and a mere 40% chance of rain today. To top it off Vic announced no new coronavirus cases for two weeks this morning.
In NSW things are a little more intense. Up to 200 schools are closed, many roads are closed, thousands are evacuated and the rest of us are staying inside and hiding from the rain.
In Port Macquarie, Port News Editor Tracey Fairhurst, was attending a wedding on Saturday when Port Macquarie found itself under water. Tracey and her team have worked tirelessly over the weekend and today to keep people informed with their live updates.
Editor Matthew Lawrence and his team at the Hawkesbury Gazette have watched as the Hawkesbury River slowly continued it's rise, cutting off the Windsor Bridge. Flooding is expected in low lying areas in North Richmond and beyond.
Journalist Ruby Pascoe at the Macleay Argus has kept people in Kempsey up to date with the town on high alert after the SES said the Kempsey CBD levee was likely to overtop.
In Tamworth residents along the banks of the Peel River have been put on notice, and in Newcastle the airport is closed and roads are impassable.
Over the last 18 months journalists at Australian Community Media have covered the Black Summer Bushfires, Coronavirus and now the 2021 Floods. (We're waiting for the locusts but the Orana Mouse Plague will have to do).
In every disaster story human kindness always shines through. This morning more than $250,000 had been raised in support of those who had been affected by flooding in NSW. Here's how you can donate.
In Hawkesbury a group of locals are handing out sausage sandwiches with the sandbags needed to shore up homes and businesses.
If we've learnt anything over the last year, more feel-good stories are on their way. And if you've had enough of floods for one day, check out a selection of non-flood stories from across our network below.
Today's The Informer was written by ACM's Head of Audience, Gayle Tomlinson sat in a dry home office while listening to the rain on the roof.
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