BUILDING resilience for flood-affected communities was the focus of a federal visit to Broke on Wednesday, with the east coast facing months of potential rain.
"With impending rain events anxieties are definitely high here," Broke Residents Community Association volunteer , Angela Andonopoulos said.
"It's the fact that the water table is still quite high and there is a lot of debris in the brook.
"Even after just a little bit of rain last night it really came up quite quickly. I don't think it will take much water for at least some minor flooding."
Federal Labor MP for the Hunter, Dan Repacholi, was joined by special envoy for disaster recovery, Senator Tony Sheldon, seeking community input on how to better prepare for and respond to flood events.
"It was good to be able to table some pre-disaster event planning and juggle that with talking to people that have the authority and the willingness to keep the recovery going."
Ms Andonopoulos said despite the community being "worn down by the sheer mental and physical load" of the recovery, they are still pushing to better prepare the village.
"We would really like to see some flood mitigation," she said.
"Looking at where the banks of the brook broke and analysing those sights. Is there a need for levees? Is there a need for a cleaning out of the brook?"
On the night of the flooding, residents received an evacuation order at 5.23pm. They said all roads out of town had been cut off by floodwater at 5pm.
"If we could get our emergency warnings faster that would be helpful and I think that comes back to getting accurate gauges in the brook."
Mr Repacholi said a focus coming out of Wednesday's visit is to look at getting more accurate flood monitoring for the Wollombi Brook and to replace the monitor in Bulga, which he said is "not working correctly".
"It's about getting those things working correctly so the warnings are right and the people are paying attention to them," Mr Repacholi said.
He said a key message from Broke to Canberra is that "the people here still do need help".
"So we need to make sure that help is available and they can still get it as required."
While much of the flood response and recovery is implemented at a state and local government level, Mr Repacholi said it is his job to lobby for the community.
"People don't care whether it's a federal issue, a state issue or a local government issue. All they care about is getting it fixed," he said.
"If that means me asking a question of my state counterpart then that's what I'll do."
Wednesday's visit from the parliamentarians was about gauging both positive and negative elements of the flood response.
Mr Sheldon said it is "crucially important" that governments question how recovery and resilience processes can be done better.
"We need to better prepare as a state, local and federal government but also in community resilience," Mr Sheldon said.
"How the community can do that in a more coordinated way but also how government services can assist with that coordination."
Last week, NSW Premier Dominic Perrotett announced he had accepted every recommendation in an independent inquiry into 2022 floods, which includes a new disaster prevention authority, rescue training for residents in flood-prone areas and a back office merger of emergency services.
Mr Sheldon said it is the role of the federal government to provide financial assistance to some state initiatives. He made particular mention of building back more resilient infrastructure.
"Roads are continually being washed out and we are replacing them with the same road. There are some practical, sensible solutions that we need to be looking at."
Singleton Council had previously committed to rebuilding a section Broke Road, destroyed by the July floods, to "ensure it can withstand further natural disasters".
When asked if the federal government would look at funding the road's reconstruction, Mr Sheldon said "that's a matter for the NSW government at this point and Singleton council".
"There is tip-over points where the federal government would put funding in."
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