In Australia, Aidan Ricketts rescues 16 of his neighbours trapped by floods one by one and becomes a national hero

His exploits went far beyond Australia’s borders. We even find them on the pages of the British daily The Guardian, And even from The Indian Express. For good reason, his story illustrates the natural disaster Australia is currently enduring, Drowning in heavy rain, On Thursday, March 3, 500,000 people were ordered to leave their homes, with flooding lasting from Brisbane in the east to Sydney in the South. Water sometimes rose to the roofs of houses, and this is what happened to Aidan Ricketts, in his forties, a resident of Lismore and professor at the Faculty of law. “My house was built precisely to withstand hundred years of floods, He told the local 9N. When it started raining, I thought we were going to get knee-high water, but at five in the morning the topsoil came and it went up to the ceiling.“

During historic floods in Australia, Aidan Ricketts lost his home.

Instead of worrying, he decided to go out on his boat and help people. He has rescued sixteen people and five dogs so far.

This is how heroes are.

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– Goodable (@Goodable) March 2, 2022

Two metres of water, three metres of places, so Aidan Ricketts had time to get his little canoe out of his garage, board with his family and abandon his home. “Then, because I obviously didn’t have to do anything else anymore, I went to see if people needed help.”And he, many, found refugees on their roofs. Thanks to Cano, he rescued one person first, then two, then a family of six, many more, all taken to a mountain. In total, Aidan Ricketts rescued 16 people and five dogs, some of them out of windows in extremis, for example a 90-year-old woman, lying on her mattress, which floated only 20 centimeters from the ceiling.

“Here in Australia and precisely in Lismore, we are used to heavy rains, but I have never seen this in my life and I don’t see what kind of residence could have endured an event like this. Now that the whole world is around, we found ourselves at the centre of an extreme climate event.”Opinion Aidan Ricketts. On Tuesday, March 1, after 48 hours of uninterrupted recovery, the Lismore hero ended up going to sleep, “Because you have to know how to stop, even though I have to say it’s like an addiction, you help one person and then you see five people calling you and you can’t go back.”Since last week, twelve people have died in these floods, estimated to be 2.5 times more intense than usual, according to the Australian Weather Service.