NSW residents begin flood clean up

Australia Broadcast Center

23-05-2025

Samantha Donovan: We begin tonight with the flood disaster in New South Wales. Four deaths are confirmed so far. Thousands of homes are without power and many residents remain stranded in an area stretching from the state's central coast up to Grafton in the Northern Rivers region. The rain has eased in that area but an enormous logistical operation is underway. Getting supplies of food, water and other essentials into isolated communities is a major priority for authorities and on top of that the risk to lives remains. Alison Xiao filed this report.
Alison Xiao: In Port Macquarie about 300 kilometres north of Sydney, locals like Dale Jordan are helping bring supplies to neighbours who've been stranded.
Dale Jordan: We've got a lot of the locals on the north shore who need just basic supplies like water, eggs, milk, alcohol obviously. So we've got some local guys here, local oyster farmers and boaties who are actually willing to go over in the waters.
Alison Xiao: Others in the town like Julie Norman are still cut off from their homes by floodwaters and running low on supplies.
Julie Norman: We have no power now and we have no internet of course but I can still use a gas stove and we're having lots of Suimins. Yes, noodles. Probably till Sunday we've got milk in the cupboard, long life milk, Vegemite. So we all have Vegemite sandwich early.
Alison Xiao: She dealt with similar floods four years ago and is waiting anxiously for waters to recede so she can check on her home.
Julie Norman: If it starts receding now and it looks like it, my house might be saved. Last time I lost all my photographs, my family albums and everything so I've put them up high before I left the house. Then last time I lost everything so I know what to expect.
Alison Xiao: Further south but inland from the coast, fifth generation dairy farmer James McRae is counting himself lucky he hasn't lost any livestock but many of his neighbours in Barrington haven't been as fortunate. Mr McRae says many farmers who can't get back to their properties are feeling anxious about their animals.
James McRae: We've heard stories of farms losing all of their young stock, calves and heifers and stuff. There have been dairies and are currently dairies that are out of action and they haven't been able to milk the cows and those cows are in a real state at the moment which is really hard for the farmers, incredibly mentally difficult for the farmers.
Alison Xiao: Although the intense rainfall has eased in some of the worst hit towns including Taree and Kempsey, authorities are urging people to take care with dozens of emergency warnings still in place. Many main roads are also still cut off by flood water or landslips. The Premier Chris Minns says it still might not be safe to venture out.
Chris Minns: We're asking people to look at the app rather than the sky to make a determination about whether it's safe to go home or to use your local roads.
Alison Xiao: There have been four confirmed deaths in these floods but the Premier says without the work of emergency services performing more than 600 flood rescues the death toll could have been far worse.
Chris Minns: Without the SES, without the volunteers we would have had hundreds of deaths and we're in deep deep gratitude to those people who volunteered their time or work for emergency services.
Alison Xiao: The SES Commissioner Mike Wassing says the focus of the response is starting to shift.
Mike Wassing: Recognising the tempo that we're starting to see that is slowly decreasing the rescue operations that is allowing our resupply focus to turn to those people that have been very patient and I appreciate the community's patience where you have been isolated that we're actually able to focus more on our resupply.
Alison Xiao: Cameron Anderson is an emergency management specialist from La Trobe University and was a volunteer firefighter in the Victorian Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. He says there are many priorities that authorities are balancing.
Cameron Anderson: People who are cut off from supplies are always a concern. Food and medication is another one that can run down quite quickly that can cause people who are otherwise vulnerable to become even more so after emergency and they can be a real challenge ensuring they get the support they need. The other challenges with floods can be the damage to infrastructure so we can have power and access to clean water can be cut off.
Alison Xiao: He says both residents and volunteers are feeling weary.
Cameron Anderson: We're seeing particularly with climate change we're seeing these disaster events happening more severely. We rely very heavily on volunteer emergency services in Australia and they're already seeing some challenges with getting enough members to undertake their workload. So it can put you know quite a burden on them and be quite a challenge when it comes to balancing those things.
Alison Xiao: Cameron Anderson says there's still a long road ahead.
Cameron Anderson: A lot of the challenge with floods comes from the fact that you know unlike fires and some of the other emergencies that Australia can experience flooding is quite a long-running and quite a dirty emergency. Floods have you know once they're long lasting after the flood waters recede then communities and responders are left with mud, mould you know along with the building damage and displacement. Then you've got social recovery and you know we need to rebuild people's confidence and their place in the community and adjust them to what that new normal looks like for them. And of course then there's the challenge of building back better.
Samantha Donovan: Cameron Anderson is an emergency management specialist at La Trobe Uni. That report from Alison Xiao and Myles Houlbrook-Walk.