Disaster agencies defend flood response

Less than 10 per cent of flood victims across NSW have received crucial disaster relief funds targeting low-income families months after the record-breaking devastation.

The revelations came on the final day of hearings of an upper house committee examining the response of disaster management agencies to the floods which claimed 13 lives earlier this year.

Pauline Hanson's One Nation MP Rod Roberts singled out Resilience NSW specifically for only processing some 215 grant applications out of more than 2250 received until late May.

"Those people are the most vulnerable, most socio-economically deprived people ... Is that a satisfactory level?" he asked.

Committee chairman Labor MP Walt Secord said communities in the state's north were angry Resilience NSW had treated the "fourth worst natural disaster" in modern Australian history as a "nine-to-five job".

Holding up a photo of a woman escaping rising waters on a small boat with a child, two garbage bags of her belongings and two small dogs, Mr Secord said her assistance application was denied by officials.

"How can a human being reject this? It's clearly not processed by a human being," he said.

But Resilience NSW Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons vigorously defended the agency's conduct in reaching and supporting flood evacuees and the post-disaster recovery.

"We're not a 24-hour organisation. We don't have thousands of personnel," he said.

"We're active and engaged but we're only a couple of hundred people.

"We don't have the scale or resourcing during the response phase of these events."

He told the inquiry he was proud of the efforts of his staff, saying some had even slept in their cars when they were responding to the early stages of this crisis.

SES Commissioner Carlene York said the agency was dispatched to more than 2200 flood rescues and responded to in excess of 33,400 requests for help.

More than 5600 staff and volunteers were involved in the rescue efforts.

Ms York noted some 4000 properties were deemed uninhabitable after the waters subsided.

Victims of the rising waters criticised the state's response after the first round of flooding, with many residents in northern NSW remaining without electricity for six weeks.

Mr Fitzsimmons said more than 1300 people remained in emergency accommodation.

In the 16 weeks since the floods almost 12,000 people had applied for a rental support scheme totalling about $248 million, but nearly 7500 were found to be ineligible.

Labor MP Penny Sharpe said North Coast victims had been worn down by the bureaucracy.

"The level of frustration and distress as a result because they (residents) are being asked for paperwork they no longer have is extraordinary," she said.

"We've had people crying in front of us because they're being asked to provide the same documentation five times they don't have because their house or business has washed away.

"I just cannot overstate the level of trauma in the community ...They're in desperate circumstances in terms of housing."

Mr Secord described the slow drip of rental support provided to displaced residents as "a cruel hoax".

Ms Sharpe also levelled criticisms at the SES for not effectively communicating with flood-affected communities over which rescue agency would take the lead, describing the response as "confused".

"I'm not sure why there's confusion from the community," Ms York said.

"I don't think anything has gone wrong in relation to command and control."

The SES chief bristled at her agency's use of resources, noting it was a state-wide event.

"Not all helicopters, for example, were sent to Lismore," she said.

"Our resources were spread ... and as different events passed in urgency and criticality, we move resources around."

The committee will submit its recommendations to the government on August 9.