Before and after: Satellite images show damage from NSW floods

Aerial imagery from the NSW floods has painted a devastating picture of damage across the state from the once-in-a-century disaster. See the before and after images.

Aerial imagery has revealed the staggering scale of damage caused by the once-in-a-century NSW floods.

The before and after satellite imagery captured last week by NearMap paints a devastating picture of the damage caused by the floods, which were the worst many have seen in their lifetime.

The images show once lush green plains of land in Richmond completely enveloped by floodwaters.

Another image shows waterfront homes in the historic town of Ebenezer near the Hawkesbury River completely waterlogged.

Throughout the Hawkesbury, thousands of residents across a string of suburbs were told to evacuate as water gushed into their homes when the river rose to levels not seen in decades.

Minutes away in nearby Windsor, homes and farmland are seen sitting in a vast sea of brown, contaminated floodwaters.

In Pitt Town in Sydney’s northwest, flooding turned fields of farmland into an island, completely engulfing homes in muddy water.

The week-long flood emergency left thousands of people in crisis, with the State Emergency Service (SES) receiving 12,500 calls for help and performing more than a thousand flood rescues.

Across the state, the NSW coast was drenched with up to 400 millimetres of rain in parts -more than three times the Sydney average fir March.

As floodwaters continue to recede, residents in hard-hit zones are undertaking the painstaking clean-up process with the help of the Australian Defence Force and Rural Fire Service.

Insurers are still assessing the scale of damage from the floods, but it is expected to be in the millions.

LA NINA OFFICIALLY COMES TO AN END

La Nina has officially come to an end, marking the end of six months of unusually wet and wild weather across Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) this week declared the end of the weather system, which began on September 29 last year.

The occurrence brought wetter-than-normal conditions across eastern Australia through spring, summer and autumn.

It also saw one of the wettest summers in almost a decade and contributed to an increased risk of torrential rain, flooding and cyclones.

La Niña has faded & the tropical Pacific Ocean has returned to a neutral El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) state.
This doesn't mean the wet weather is over, some wetter weather may continue into April. Learn more about these climate drivers: https://t.co/67KlpxTubtpic.twitter.com/eto3pvjXxb

— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) March 30, 2021

Across the state, summer rainfall was 29 per cent above average.

Cool conditions in the eastern Pacific and warm conditions in the west cause the weather phenomenon, which occurs every fewyears.

But BOM duty forecaster David Wilke says the end of La Nina doesn’t necessarily mean there will be less rain than usual.

“Moving to neutral conditions doesn’t mean we’ll have below average rainfall. The current climate outlook suggests that forNSW we’re expecting a normal chance of rain,” he said.

Wet weather is forecast to hit northern NSW next week - just a week after flooding caused devastation across the state.

“We are monitoring the potential for a bit of rain next week, not on the scale we’ve just seen, but there could be a reasonableamount of rain on the north coast,’ Mr Wilke said.

Originally published as Before and after: Satellite images show damage from NSW floods