Anthony Albanese says extreme weather events such as the mid-north coast floods are becoming more frequent and intense as a fifth body has been found in the disaster-hit region.
“You are not alone,” was the message from the prime minister on Friday, as he travelled up to Maitland from Canberra to better grasp the scale of the massive flooding and the required emergency response.
“Tragically, we’re seeing more extreme weather events. They’re occurring more frequently, and they’re more intense,” Albanese said.
A large area from the north coast of New South Wales down to the Victorian border had been affected, with the regions between Kempsey and the Central Coast most heavily affected.
While the heavy rain was expected to clear the state by Friday evening, strong and damaging wind gusts are forecast to strike from Monday, said Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology.
“The land is very wet, extremely saturated after this week’s rainfall … when you get strong winds on to soggy soil that is when trees can come down. There is a potential for tree damage, tree falls, power outages, damages to houses, properties and cars.”
Albanese and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, had hoped to travel to Taree but poor conditions stopped them accessing the flood-hit area.
Speaking from the State Emergency Service emergency operations centre in Maitland, they said disaster assistance would be extended to a further three local government areas – Armidale, Muswellbrook and Walcha – taking the total number of council areas eligible for assistance to 19.
Personal hardship assistance grants of $180 per individual or $900 per family will be available, along with $1m community recovery grants for affected local councils.
This assistance is separate to the disaster recovery allowance announced for the local government areas of Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Mid Coast and Dungog, which Albanese said would be available from 2pm on Monday.
“Tragically, we are getting very experienced at dealing with these challenges,” he said. The National Emergency Management Agency had activated a crisis coordination unit in Canberra and that was working in conjunction with people on the ground in affected communities, he added.
An Australian defence force helicopter had been involved in more than a dozen rescues. More ADF personnel would be deployed if required, the prime minister said.
As climate change drives more frequent and extreme weather events, Albanese acknowledged insurance of homes “represents a real challenge”. The government was in contact with the Insurance Council of Australia, Albanese said.
“We need to acknowledge that whilst Australia has always had extreme weather events, the science told us that those events would be more frequent and would be more intense, and that is placing pressure on the system.
“It is a challenge that we need to deal with and be conscious of, and we certainly are, and that’s why we’re we’re engaged directly, not just with the insurance council, the peak [body], but also individual insurance companies.”
Extreme weather researchers at ClimaMeter found climate change had contributed to wetter conditions off the NSW coast, amplifying the amount of rain.
They found meteorological conditions were up to 15% wetter (up to 3mm of extra rain a day) compared to years between 1950-86.
While climate projections for rainfall are more complex and less certain than other events like heatwaves, global heating is increasing the amount of moisture the air can hold, which could lead to heavier rainfall.
‘Impossible, desperate situations’
The NSW State Emergency Service said there had been 736 flood rescues, including 177 in the past 24 hours, and there were 39 emergency warnings in place.
Minns paid tribute to volunteers who had “put themselves in harm’s way to rescue a complete stranger” and said the coming days and weeks would bring “scores of stories of locals being plucked out of impossible, desperate situations”.
“We mourn the people that have passed,” he said.
“But I do think it’s important to say without the SES, without the volunteers, we would have had hundreds of deaths.
“We’re in deep, deep gratitude to those people who volunteered their time or work for emergency services.”
The death toll in the flood disaster rose to five after a man’s body was found in a car in flood waters near Coffs Harbour on Friday morning, and the body believed to be that of a man in his 80s was found on a Cooplacurripa property, about 50km north-west of Taree on Friday afternoon.
Police who arrived on a NSW RFS helicopter searched the property and found a body in a burnt-out vehicle inside the shed.
The trough that has battered the region was moving southwards on Friday. The weather bureau said rain had eased on the mid-north coast but several flood warnings were still in place and conditions were dangerous.
At 3pm, a severe weather warning was current for the NSW coast from Wollongong to the Victorian border, including the south coast and parts of Illawarra, Southern Tablelands and Snowy Mountains districts.
“Throughout this warning area, we could see a further 60 to 120mm of rain today,” Hines said. Risk of flooding remained as rivers had not yet subsided.
Heavy rainfall was concentrated over the Central Coast, Sydney and south coast areas on Friday morning, with between 60mm and 100mm falling in the Sydney metro region and 179mm at North Richmond.
There were 16 evacuation centres open, including at Dungog, Gloucester, Taree, Wingham, Kempsey, Bellingen and Port Macquarie.
Emergency services personnel from Victoria travelled to NSW on Thursday night to assist.
The federal government activated a disaster recovery allowance for people who live or work in the Kempsey, Port Macquarie-Hastings, MidCoast and Dungog local government areas, available from 2pm on Monday.
