An estimated 10,000 properties may have been damaged in record-breaking flooding in New South Wales and thousands remain isolated, as communities begin to clean up after “devastating” impacts.
Flood waters have begun to subside in some areas and weather conditions have improved on the mid-north coast, where severe weather warnings were cancelled on Friday evening.
There have been five confirmed deaths in the region during the flooding with two more deaths confirmed on Friday. About 50,000 people remain isolated by flood waters, even as clean up and damage assessments get under way.
NSW state emergency services commissioner Mike Wassing, said while floodwaters were now receding from communities across the state, those impacted were now starting to comprehend the extent of the damage and the slow road to recovery.
“In my experience, the worst impacts that people feel are often after the event,” Wassing said. “The impacts are devastating… to see personal possessions or your business impacted. That is usually felt afterwards… the worst is over but we still have a lot to do from a community perspective.”
The clean-up would be “significant” Wassing said.
“This is not a few days operation, this is potentially a few weeks operations and we coordinate that in the context of the receding flood waters and working with the community members.
“We are conscious that many of the community members are still in evacuation centres here today. They are tired and they want to get home.”
There are still 148 flood warnings in place across NSW, 31 of those at emergency level still.
Emergency services have conducted 768 flood rescues during the floods, the vast majority on NSW’s mid-north coast. Crews performed 52 flood rescues overnight, nearly all of which were needed after people tried to drive through flood waters.
Wassing said the emergency services response would shift from rescue to resupply over the weekend, with dozens of homes and communities still isolated.
Gabrielle Woodhouse, senior meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology said flood warnings remained in place, but were expected to withdrawn over the coming week. However, strong winds – gusting at up to 90kmh – are expected.
“Across the weekend, we will still see generally dry conditions along the coastal areas and we’ll see a cold front that is going to approach from the west. With that we will see winds increasing.”
The body of a man believed to be his 80s was found on Friday inside a burnt-out vehicle in the shed of a Cooplacurripa property, about 50km north-west of Taree.
Severe weather conditions had prevented emergency crews accessing the man’s home when a concern for his welfare was raised two days earlier.
The body of a man in his late 70s was also found on Friday after his vehicle appeared to be swept off a causeway at Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour.
A man missing in Nymboida has been found but police have not ruled out floods as a factor in the disappearance of another man in Bellingen.
As the rain moved south across NSW on Friday, it brought heavy rain across large parts of Sydney with up to 200mm rain in some areas, causing train delays and a warning that visitors to the Sydney Vivid festival launch on Friday evening may experience delays.
On Friday evening, there was a severe weather warning for the South Coast and parts of Illawarra, Southern Tablelands and Snowy Mountains as the system moved toward the Victorian border.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said disaster assistance would be extended to a further three local government areas – Armidale, Muswellbrook and Walcha – taking the total number of council areas eligible for assistance to 19.
Personal hardship assistance grants of $180 per individual or $900 per family will be available, along with $1m community recovery grants for affected local councils.
This assistance is separate to the disaster recovery allowance announced for the local government areas of Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Mid Coast and Dungog, which Albanese said would be available from 2pm on Monday.
Insurers have already received more than 1,600 claims relating to the severe flooding, with more expected to come through over the weekend, the Insurance Council of Australia’s chief executive, Andrew Hall, said.
Insurers have had people stationed in communities where it is safe to do so, and more claims staff will be called in once teams can access flood affected areas. Hall told the ABC that since 2022, when there were 230,000 disaster insurance claims payouts, the industry now has staff on all year round.
“It’s no longer just a case that we have a workforce over the summer holiday period when we usually have these events,” he said. “We’re now seeing a disaster season really stretched throughout the year, and insurers have had to rebuild their workforces to be able to cope with that.”
Albanese said people facing difficulty obtaining insurance against extreme weather events represented a “real challenge” as the science said such events were becoming more frequent and intense.
“It is a challenge that we need to deal with and be conscious of, and we certainly are. And that’s why we’re engaged directly not just with the Insurance Council … but also individual insurance companies,” he said.
Hall said insurers had been attempting to rebuild their insurance pools since 2022, and the flood defences for towns that were hit every few years needed to be improved. He said driving down inflation on building costs would also help reduce premium rises.
