SA sends more help to flood-stricken NSW
The South Australian State Emergency Service will deploy an additional 16 workers to crisis-hit New South Wales to help displaced residents in flood-affected communities as they return to their homes to survey the damage.
Photo: Bhret Mcintyre/AAP
The first tranche of 26 State Emergency Service (SES) workers who flew to New South Wales on Thursday arrived back in South Australia this afternoon after helping deal with heavy rain and flooding in parts of western Sydney and the Hunter valley.
Following a NSW request for further assistance, a second team of 14 SES community liaison officer volunteers and two jurisdictional liaison officers will leave Adelaide tomorrow morning to spend four days assisting their eastern state counterparts.
“Severe flooding in a number of areas in New South Wales continues to pose challenges for local communities with further rain forecast over the coming days,” SA SES acting chief officer Liz Connell said.
“As some waters begin to slowly subside, many people are returning to their homes and communities and damage assessments are being undertaken.
“However, there are still a large number of areas experiencing restricted access, such as road closures.”
Some parts of NSW received more than 200 millimetres of rain, with higher rainfalls of more than 350mm for parts of the Illawarra.
Some areas have exceeded their daily rainfall averages for July.
The NSW State Emergency Services said 7200 waterlogged homes have been assessed so far, with almost 750 deemed uninhabitable.
The lower Hawkesbury area remains flooded and the SES is still ferrying supplies to isolated communities.
The SES responded to 350 calls for help overnight and performed 13 flood rescues.
Almost 500 people have been rescued and more than 9150 calls have been made to the SES since the floods began two weeks ago.
Showers are forecast for Sydney on Monday before clearing later in the week, although surf conditions are tipped to remain dangerous.
Federal Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt said the government would unlock a $4.8 billion emergency response fund to get more cash out for long-term flood mitigation projects.
As the clean-up effort gets underway, residents of 29 local government areas are now eligible for relief payments of up to $1000.
The federal government says $340 million has been delivered so far.
Payments of $1000 per eligible adult and $400 per eligible child are available to people impacted by the flooding.
About 105,000 people can return home but have been warned to emotionally prepare for what they will find, and to reach out for help from neighbours.
– with AAP
