PM and Premier visit flood-ravaged Windsor, Broke evacuated
With 20 Broke homes already inundated, Hunter residents are bracing for the worst as the weather system which has caused havoc across Sydney sweeps north.
NSW
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Hunter residents are bracing for the worst as the weather system which has caused havoc across Sydney sweeps north.
Singleton Mayor Sue Moore said on Wednesday night the town of Singleton was crossing their fingers as river levels continued to rise.
“We are still hoping that the peak will be 13.8 metres,” she said. Anything above 13m is considered a major flood in the town.
The tiny village of Broke in the Hunter Valley was evacuated of its estimated 292 residents after they were completely surrounded by floodwaters.
Singleton’s SES unit on Wednesday said locals with a high-clearance 4WD should drive themselves out of the deluge surrounding the town, with 20 homes already inundated as of late Wednesday.
“There are a lot of people at Broke and Bulga who have seen the worst floods they have ever seen,” Ms Moore said.
“Even if they didn’t have water in their houses, they have had food destroyed thanks to the lack of power.”
She has been isolated by flood waters on her own property 10 minutes out of Branxton.
Manager of the Country Motel in Singleton, Bec Williamson, said they were going upstairs and had told guests to stay away.
“It has gone over the levels of the March floods … This is the fourth one we have had in 18 months,” she said.
“If it comes up any more, we are going to have to evacuate, we are not even 20 centimetres above the road.”
Brian Evans who lives on Archer St escaped the town about 3.30pm on Wednesday afternoon in his four wheel drive with his dogs Buddy and Tasha.
“To go out my driveway, there is a small gully, and it is too deep, my front gate is underwater,” he said.
“So I went out the side of my house and just cut my fence and drove through it.”
The NSW SES responded to 1100 requests for assistance and had undertaken 56 flood rescues in 24 hours as of late Wednesday afternoon.
Extra defence personnel will be deployed as heavy rainfall smashes northern areas of the state, triggering major flooding and landslide warnings.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has cautioned that “dangerous and life-threatening” heavy, localised rain could fall across the Mid North Coast and southeastern areas of the Northern Tableland from early afternoon through to the evening.
Across these areas, a persistent northbound trough may bring 60 and 90mm in six-hourly rainfall totals across with likely dumps of 150mm across the coast, while Bellingen, Nowendoc and Forster could see dumps in excess of 200mm in the same period.
Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Kempsey, Sawtell and Dorrigo are also on high alert.
To assist communities with the recent deluge, six SES crews from Victoria have flown in to Newcastle from Melbourne to join forces with their NSW counterparts.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed more Defence troops were on their way after he announced that flood-affected families would have access to relief payments from 2pm on Thursday.
“Recovery payments (will) kick in from 2pm tomorrow for 23 local government areas. That will consist of $1000 for adults … and $400 for every child who is eligible for this,” Mr Albanese said.
“There are 100 ADF personnel already on the ground right now. There will be an additional 150 available for tomorrow.
“It’s expected that we will use the fact that there are facilities available and personnel available in Singleton, one of the key areas that is increasingly subject to being impacted by this flooding.
“And we also will make available from this evening a third helicopter. That is likely to operate out of the Williamtown air base in the Hunter.”
Mr Albanese said he was “very pleased” that the federal government was “co-operating so well” with the New South Wales Government, calling it a “seamless relationship that we have which is what people want to see at a time like this.”
The relief is also payable to eligible employers, employees and sole traders who experience a loss of income as a direct result of the disaster “for a maximum of 13 weeks”, as well as eligible New Zealand citizens.
The Prime Minister and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet visited flood-ravaged communities as the natural disaster continues to develop throughout the state.
For a change the leaders were listening instead of talking at the Windsor community pantry, hearing out multiple stories from locals who were fed up with the consistent floods.
Windsor resident Scott Hinks appreciated the duo visiting but said showing up wasn’t enough.
“Thank you for turning up and visiting us. But this is ongoing. You’re going to be turning up again in the next three or four months,” he said.
“We actually need action now and this is the first part of it, we’ve got your government (pointing at the Premier), and your government (pointing at the Prime Minister), you need to start working together.
“This happened three months ago, and everyone was talking about fixing the same problem. It’s all on the radio, but nothing happened.”
The passionate local alluded to teamwork being the best solution.
“What we’re looking at today is Labor and Liberal getting together,” to which the Prime Minister responded, “we’re here together.”
Another resident said the water levels reached shoulder height in her house, wanting answers from the Prime Minister saying “It doesn’t get any easier.”
The leaders vowed to work together in response to the crisis, but Mr Albanese said solutions can’t be rushed.
“What people want is to work through the solutions in a systematic way. Quite clearly, we’ve always had natural disasters in Australia. But what we’re seeing is more intensity of them, and they’re happening more often,” he said.
“That requires governments to work together on issues like planning to make sure housing is in appropriate locations, to make sure that people get the support that they need. The immediate issues, of course, are dealing with the crisis … and that’s what we’re focused on in the very short term.”
It was a game of flood-roulette for McGraths Hill residents on Balmain Rd who watched in horror as floodwaters entered some houses but spared others.
Scott Marden’s home narrowly avoided the floodwater, but both houses on either side of him were inundated.
“Next door got it (the floodwaters), both sides of us got it actually,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
Among the local casualties was a government bus left abandoned in the flooded street after SES had to rescue the driver.
“He (the bus driver) just drove straight past (the roadblock sign). Obviously he couldn’t turn around and he just kept going,” Mr Marden said.
“Then he sat on it for the next three hours and the SES turned up and had to help him out.”
Locals said this flood was the worst of the four floods they’d endured in the past year, with each one climbing closer to their properties.
“This one has been the worst,” Mr Marden said, as he was racking debris off his front lawn.
“The first one blocked the road, (the) second one (came) halfway up the driveway, (the) third one almost in the garage and this one went in the garage.”
On McGrath St, Robert and Sarah Allen were cleaning up the debris after flood waters flushed through the bottom level of their house.
“The whole backyard flooded, once the drainage filled it came through under the house,” Mr Allen.
“When the levels get higher it came straight through the garage. We moved all of the stuff that we could upstairs.”
The couple salvaged most of their things, but are preparing for further renovations after the last floods.
“We were upstairs, half asleep, and the SES was telling us to leave and move our cars, but the water was already up to the house, baskets and containers were floating around downstairs” he said.
“We’re probably going to have to rip all of our floor up and replace it with tiles.”
Communities remain on high-alert as evacuation orders climb to 108 and warnings stand at 56 – affecting about 84,000 people.
On Tuesday, hundreds of millimetres were dumped onto the Central Coast, including 158mm in Wyong into Wednesday morning, leaving residents stranded in floodwaters at Tuggerah Lakes, Charmhaven and Budgewoi.
SES’s Alex Jones said riverine flooding, flash flooding and strong winds were the key issues that the agency were looking at and recommended that everyone in these areas have an evacuation plan in place.
In Sydney’s northwest, the popular Windsor Bridge, which spans across the Hawkesbury River, has completely disappeared as the rapid-rising waters continue to engulf anything in its path.
Bridge closures also remain in place at North Richmond, Yarramundi and Cattai Creek, but BOM said river levels upstream of Penrith are slowly falling.
Windsor is recording a lower river level of 12.96m compared to Tuesday when the Hawkesbury River reached its highest level in more than 40 years.
The debris that was piled up against the bridge on Monday and Tuesday is now gone as the increasing water levels guide everything downstream.
The usually thriving town is now eerily quiet with most locals already evacuated.
NSW emergency services Minister Steph Cooke said it had been a “particularly difficult” night for the Hunter as rough weather continued to strike.
“The emergency is far from over for many communities across Sydney and also as this weather event moves north of the Hunter, Central Coast and Mid North Coast,” she said.
“It’s been a particularly difficult night across the Hunter area, particularly around Singleton where we had multiple evacuation orders issued … for many it has been a sleepless night.”
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