The aim of the SES forums is to give people an opportunity to talk about the recent floods and to identify ways SES and local communities can work together to improve flood preparedness, response and transition to recovery.

On Wednesday (May 19), the NSW SES will conduct the Camden Haven Flood Forum starting at 7pm at the Laurieton Services Club and on Thursday the Lower Macleay Flood Forum will be held at the Smithtown Bowling Club also starting at 7pm.

The SES Northside flood forum was attended by 28 people from North Shore, Riverside and Maria River Road areas.

At Manning Point 66 people participated in the SES flood forum with residents from Mitchells Island and Oxley Island also present.

The forums worked through three key questions about what was good about the SES and community preparation for the floods, response to and transition to recovery from the March event, what can be improved.

The main concerns at both forums included difficulties in accessing the right information specific to the local situation, disruption to telecommunication services, the need for more specific evacuation information, information from river gauges, more support for people who have animals but are not primary producers and the lack of knowledge about warnings and key river heights.

The forums also identified a range of community strengths that emerged during the event including the sharing of local information about road conditions, weather, rainfall and where to get help once communities were isolated, checking on and working with neighbours, local knowledge of who in the community required help first, community volunteers helping with flood clean up, and SES community liaison campaign after impact.

Suggestions to improve flood arrangements put forward at the forums included possible closer integration of SES and council flood information, community emergency equipment caches/shipping container, consolidation of local social media platforms to share flood information, identifying high areas to relocate vehicles, generators and home emergency kits for residents and for the SES to conduct "Get Ready" storm and flood education workshops.

NSW SES Deputy Zone Commander Tony Day was encouraged by attendance and participation at the first two forums.

"The ideas from the forums will provide an excellent basis to continue this discussion with the community, other emergency services, and government organisations about how we can improve arrangements for the next event," Mr Day said.

"I encourage people in the Camden Haven and Lower Macleay to come along to the forums this week."

Those seeking more information on the forums can call the NSW SES Community Capability Officer, Steve Lawrence on 0404 828 494.