Support extended in NSW after months of floods

Financial assistance has been made available to another five NSW local government areas (LGA) affected by ongoing severe floods as more towns have been advised to evacuate.

Eurobodalla, Inverell, Orange, Queanbeyan-Palerang and Wentworth LGAs were added as eligible to apply for the Disaster Recovery Allowance (DRA), which offers up to 13 weeks of income support for employees and sole traders who experience a loss of income as a direct result of a major disaster.

“It’s been 67 days since the NSW floods began and 75 local government areas have now been declared natural disaster zones,” NSW Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience and Minister for Flood Recovery Steph Cooke said.

“As the floodwaters continue to move downstream the number of communities impacted by flooding increases,” she said.

“We’ll continue to work with the Commonwealth to assess the impacts of this flooding and provide further financial support to individuals, families, farmers and business owners.”

Dozens of towns are at risk of inundation from flood waters, with residents of Deniliquin in the Riverina warned to evacuate as the Edward River threatens to break its banks. That order applies to 10 streets in the town, with residents being told to leave by 10am Wednesday.

It comes after devastating flooding last week in central west NSW, where fatigued SES leaders flew in back up from New Zealand and Singapore.

“This is going to be as bad as Lismore,” local ABC news reporter Mollie Gorman said on social media. “All but two shops flooded in Molong, Eugowra destroyed, Bathurst biggest flood in 25 years, Cowra first 14-metre flood in 70 years, houses flooded in normally dry Parkes, Forbes set to break records and Condobolin already has,” she said.

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) said today insurers have so far received 2175 claims related to floods in central west NSW, a jump of 27% over the weekend. ICA also said it welcomed NSW Labor party’s commitment to no new developments on Sydney floodplains ahead of next year’s NSW State Election.

“We encourage the same approach statewide and across Australia to better protect communities,” ICA said.

The Bureau of Meteorology said today a late spring cold burst is moving over south-east Australia. Strong winds across parts of Melbourne led to trees toppling, and small hail was reported in some suburbs.

Senior meteorologist Jonathan How says because the ground is so wet, there is an elevated risk of trees and potentially powerlines toppling over.

“Widespread strong to damaging winds above 90km/h will continue on Monday through a Severe Weather Warning area, which covers parts of SA, Victoria and NSW/ACT,” he said. The risk of damaging winds may persist across elevated parts of Victoria and NSW into Tuesday morning.

Alerts are current for Tasmania due to snow-covered roads. There has also been snow at Australia’s ski resorts.

In NSW, major flooding continues to impact many communities across the state’s inland and along the Victorian border, and floodwaters are now making their way downstream, including into SA.

A levee of dirt and sandbags stretching four kms known as “the great wall of Condo” is protecting the Condobolin central business district from Lachlan River floodwater. In SA, work is underway to fix power outages across Adelaide and the Riverland after severe weather over the weekend, with more strong winds predicted. Victoria is also under a severe weather warning.

Nine recovery assistance centres are set to open across NSW at Eugowra, Orange, Parkes, Kelvin, Gunnedah, Cudal, Wagga Wagga, Narrabri and Moree.

The government assistance program in NSW helps eligible people whose homes or belongings have been damaged, supports councils with the cost of cleaning up and restoring damaged assets, offers concessional interest rate loans and freight subsidies.

“This important payment for people who aren’t able to work because of these terrible floods is now available in 75 NSW local government areas,” Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt said.

“We aim to bring peace of mind by ensuring a regular cash flow for individuals whose income has been directly affected by the floods.”