Locals take charge of NSW floods helicopter food and rescue efforts amid frustration with ADF

Volunteers are spending hours flying over submerged power lines and the stench of decaying cattle, delivering urgent aid to their towns

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I've still got people on roofs needing food and rescuing, and I've just got to find someone to get to them," says Ash Jones at the Rotorwing Helicopter hangar at the Lismore airport in northern New South Wales.

Jones has been working long hours as a volunteer air traffic controller and donation coordinator, and is de facto leader at the hangar. She says she is too busy to be interviewed.