Sydney storms: Flooding to continue on day four as storms ease
PREMIER Mike Baird described his shock at seeing the scale and size of the Hunter Valley’s flooding crisis, tweeting his own photos and warning of a further wave of wet weather due in a few days..
NSW
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NSW Premier Mike Baird has been “shocked by the size and scale” of the devastation caused by this week’s storms that continue to leave thousands of people without power and entire communities cut off by floodwaters.
Mr Baird flew over flood-ravaged Maitland and Dungog this morning.
“You can’t really appreciate the size and scope until you see it,” he told a press conference at the Hunter State Emergency Services headquarters at Metford.
“It will be a long time until we get this area back on its feet.
“Everywhere you turn everyone is chipping in and making a difference.
“The next few days are still going to be tough.”
Avoid #HexhamBridge esp. Northbound. Traffic at standstill for 25k plus. This is why. pic.twitter.com/EthsNZrjuh
— SusannaFreymark (@SusannaFreymark) April 23, 2015
Mr Baird warned he had been advices by the Bureau of Meteorology of another weather front that might be coming through in the next few days.
The state and federal governments have activated disaster assistance for 12 local government areas to provide support to help affected residents re-establish their lives.
SES Commissioner Adam Dent said the service had received 14,000 requests for assistance since Sunday morning with 5000 coming from the Hunter alone.
He said the SES had received 19,000 calls for the entire past storm season from September to March.
“So in just a few days our members across the state have repeated the entire workload of the several months prior,” he said.
“We’ve also had over 95 flood rescues in the Hunter region, that’s 95 people who have unfortunately found themselves in the way of trouble.”
Mr Baird spoke as a command post at Maitland continued to ferry vital food and supplies to thousands of residents trapped by rising floodwaters at Gillieston Heights.
The State Emergency Service is using four rescue dinghies to transport residents between Maitland and Gillieston Heights, and an inflatable boat has been used since early this morning to ferry supplies.
The outer suburb of Maitland was cut off shortly after 8.30am when an 86-year-old Gillieston Heights woman was trapped when her car was swept off Cessnock Rd by a growing torrent of water. A veritable inland sea lies between Maitland and high ground several hundred metres across at Gillieston.
DETAILS OF BOTTLED WATER DELIVERY TO STORM-HIT AREAS
MILPERRA AND CHIPPING NORTON DECLARED SAFE
Police divers and sonar equipment were employed in a large-scale search of the flooded area yesterday, with the woman’s body found in her car about 6.15pm.
Several people in another car also entered the water shortly after the elderly woman was swept away and they too had to be rescued.
The SES still has 7717 calls for help outstanding and has attended 13,234 storm jobs since Monday.
There have been 4795 calls for help in the Hunter and 4624 for northern Sydney up to Wyong.
There have been nearly 7000 jobs for fallen trees and 4000 for damage to homes.
As tens of thousands of storm-affected homes around The Hunter approach 72 hours without power, emergency supplies are running desperately short.
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Stores close to the areas hardest hit have experienced unprecedented demand for items such as torches, lanterns, batteries, candles and bottled water.
Bunnings Kotara, in the centre of the blackout zone, was down to its last crate of generators this morning.
Woolworths Charlestown explained in a note to customers that the “extreme” weather had affected the company’s transport network and its ability to get new supplies to the store for sale.
Ausgrid said this afternoon that more than 70,000 homes and businesses had been reconnected to the grid over the past 24 hours.
About 1400 emergency staff were continuing to repair and rebuild affected network areas to get power back to a further 155,000 customers.
For updates and a list of areas where power has been restored or is still out, visit www.ausgrid.com.au/storms
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Telstra says phone coverage has been down for so long for so many people in the Hunter region that they have switched more than 500 public phones in areas affected by coverage blackouts to free “for the foreseeable future”
Meanwhile, further south, an evacuation order remained in place for parts of Milperra, although it should be removed later.
The current death toll stands at eight, with the woman swept to her death in Maitland yesterday afternoon yet to be identified.
Flood levels are expected to peak although the conditions have eased and the sun is shining on many areas.
The Insurance Council of Australia has declared the storm a catastrophe, with expected losses of more than $161 million and rising.
By last night insurance companies had received more than 25,000 claims from customers for damage caused by trees falling on houses and cars, and leaking roofs.
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The SES said the slow-moving low pressure system off the Hunter coast would weaken on Thursday and “led to improved weather conditions over eastern New South Wales”.
It said flooding on the Colo River meant Macdonald Valley, Webbs Creek Valley and Colo Valley were isolated.
A total of 132 flood rescues had been made since the wild weather began, including in the early hours of this morning when a teenager was washed off his bike in western Sydney.
Most calls to the SES have been about fallen trees and roof damage caused by wind and heavy rainfall.
The Transport Management Centre says the bad weather is continuing to impact roads and public transport.
The bureau says the worst of wild weather is over, but has warned that flood peaks will still come today despite less rainfall across the state’s east coast.
Twelve local government areas have been declared natural disaster zones, spreading from Sydney’s northern beaches to the Hunter Valley.
VICTIMS
Police divers last night retrieved the body of the latest victim of the floods, an elderly woman whose silver Hyundai hatchback was swept into Wallis Creek along Cessnock Road in the Hunter Region.
The woman was returning home after driving to Maitland for supplies when she became trapped.
Other victims include a man died after his ute and a garbage truck collided at Galston, and an 87-year-old pedestrian died after being hit by a car in East Gosford. Both accidents were blamed on the storm.
Two people were also killed on the New England Highway near Singleton yesterday, after a horror head-on collision in wet conditions. The driver of each car died at the scene at about 3.20pm.
Two passengers in one car, both aged in their 20s, were flown to hospital in serious condition.
The deaths came as the tiny town of Dungog, north of Newcastle, mourned the loss of two men and a woman, aged in their 60s and 70s, who drowned in their homes during a flash flood on Tuesday.
Lucky not to be the ninth was a teenager was swept from his bicycle by floodwater in Western Sydney and forced to cling to a tree until emergency services could rescue him.
The 18-year-old was riding alongside the flooding Penrith Weir with two friends shortly after midnight when he fell into the water.
He was able to grab onto a nearby tree and hold on while emergency services were called, and rescuers could bring him to shore.
TRANSPORT
No Sydney rail lines are currently affected, but the Hunter Line is closed between Hamilton and Dungog/Scone, with a limited bus service in place, and the South Coast Line is closed between Kiama and Oak Flats, with buses replacing trains.
About 80 sets of traffic lights are out across Sydney, and a number of main roads are closed due to flooding.
These include Oxford Falls Road at Oxford Falls, Audley Weir at the Royal National Park, Luddenham Rd at Orchard Hills and Windsor Rd at McGraths Hill, and Newbridge Rd at Chipping Norton.
In the Hunter, about 90 sets of lights are out and there are also numerous road closures in place.
Most ferries are running to schedule, but buses are replacing services between Rydalmere and Kissing Point Wharf on the Parramatta River.
The TMC says commuters should expect delays on buses throughout Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle due to local road closures.
The Bureau of Meteorology has flood warnings in place for the Hunter River, Hawkesbury and Nepean Rivers, Georges River, South Coast, Wyong River and Tuggerah Lake, Lake Macquarie and Paterson and Williams Rivers.
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