Three missing in NSW flood emergency
Andy Park: The first death has been recorded in the New South Wales flood emergency. There are three people missing as severe rain and record river levels inundate towns on the state's mid north coast. A 63 year old man was found dead in his flooded home near Taree yesterday. And the New South Wales Premier has warned residents to brace for more tough news over the coming 24 hours. A major rescue operation is continuing across the state with residents stranded in floodwaters and on their rooftops. Gavin Coote reports.
Gavin Coote: As record breaking floods devastate parts of New South Wales and leave many stranded, a massive effort is underway to winch those to safety. Police helicopters have already completed more than 20 rescues and on the ground many are struggling to comprehend the scale of the disaster. May Ambour lives in Taree, which is experiencing its worst flood on record.
May Ambour: There's devastation everywhere. People have been helicoptered, out of, from their properties that have never been flooded before.
Gavin Coote: Thousands of people are without power and have been isolated by cut off roads. And the flood emergency has turned deadly. A man's body was found in a property north of Taree yesterday. There were grave fears for three other people reported missing in the region. May Ambour, who owns a business arcade in Taree, which is now underwater, points out many are still traumatised by major flooding there in 2021.
May Ambour: The sad thing is that a lot of homes have been affected. This time I think probably 80% of the businesses are closed and are impacted with this massive flood.
Gavin Coote: You've been out and about having a look. How would you describe what you've seen, the sort of scale of the flooding?
May Ambour: Um, it's a, it's flooding that we've never seen as big as what it is this time. And it's all blocked off at this stage. Our bridge is closed on both directions. No one can get in or out of the town. Some of the doctors and nurses that are working hard up at the hospital, probably having to seek beds at friends' houses to, because they might live across the other side. If this carries on any longer than the next two or three days, then there'll be families that are crying out for help, food-wise. And so that's, it's never happened before.
Gavin Coote: About two and a half thousand emergency workers have been deployed to flood-affected areas, stretching from Coffs Harbour to the Hunter region. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns is warning continued rainfall could lead to further flood-level rises.
Chris Minns: We're bracing for more bad news in the next 24 hours. This natural disaster has been terrible for this community. It's affected a wide number of people. It's affected tens of thousands of houses. And as a result, we are bracing for more bad news. I can report that we're expecting 100 millimetres of rain in the general area of operations over the next 24 hours. But in isolated areas, it could get between 200 and 300 mils, which again is not what we need given the huge amount of rainfall that's fallen in the last 48 hours.
Gavin Coote: Major flooding along the Manning River has also devastated the town of Wingham, which is upstream from Taree. Paul Allen owns a pizza shop in Wingham. While his business remains high and dry, he says much of the town centre is underwater. He's busily cooking up pizzas for emergency workers and evacuees.
Paul Allen: The local supermarket, gym, hay shed, which is like a produce place as well, it's really bad. And our local backup tolls is currently down as well. My cousin's got the butchers and he's got 34 feet of water in the centre as well. And it's getting quite worrying when, when or how we're going to get any support.
Gavin Coote: And what makes it challenging, I imagine, is the connections to Taree are also cut off and even Taree's cut off from the rest of the world at the moment.
Paul Allen: It is. It's quite challenging with just food and supplies. At the moment, there's no answers for when we're going to get the food drop or help for the evacuation post. So it's quite frustrating.
Gavin Coote: And while the towns of Taree, Wingham and Kempsey have been of biggest concern, authorities are warning the threat could extend as far as Sydney. Michael Wassing is the State Emergency Service Commissioner.
Michael Wassing: Here we are in Sydney and there's some active rainfall events there, different sort of circumstances. But again, we're pre-positioning and focused in terms of the situation there. And then we do have some focus into next week, so showing the winds into the south and south east parts of New South Wales as well.
Andy Park: New South Wales State Emergency Service Commissioner Michael Wossing ending Gavin Coote's report.
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