New South Wales | Flood update for Saturday 28 Jan 2012
New South Wales | 28 Jan 2012
Overnight heavy local rain affected the northern inland of NSW. Broken Hill received 52mm of rainfall overnight over several hours from severe thunderstorms with some flash flooding. This resulted in two flood rescues and 33 requests for assistance.
Goodooga (population 300) north of Bourke is isolated from heavy local rain. This isolation is likely to last a day depending upon the amount of rain in the next few days.
On the north and mid-north coasts, the current isolations total approximately 2350 people. These areas are:
Mid-north Coast: rural localities on the Nymboida, Orara, Bellinger, Kalang, and Coldstream River areas and the Upper Macleay Valley.
North Coast: rural localities including Upper Main Arm, Upper Wilsons Creek, Bungawalbyn and some rural properties in the Tweed Heads Shire.
There have been a total of 54 flood rescues for this event. The most recent flood rescues have occurred at Murwillumbah, Coffs Harbour and Broken Hill. The majority of rescues have been of persons deliberately entering floodwaters. The NSW SES urges that you never enter floodwater.
The water supply pump in Tweed Shire that had resulted in water restrictions in that area has been repaired, although residents are being asked to be sparing in their use until it is back up to full capacity later this morning.
Operationally, the SES continues to conduct storm and flood response operations in north eastern NSW. Resupply to isolated communities is being coordinated by the responsible SES Regions and flood rescues continue to be undertaken.
Rivers on the north coast are receding with Final Flood Warnings being issued for a number of rivers (Tweed, Richmond/Wilson, Macleay Rivers).
The SES has to date received a total of 1084 requests for assistance, with most requests received in the Richmond / Tweed SES Region (338 RFA’s) and the Clarence / Nambucca SES Region (333). Rocky Creek Dam near Lismore has been given the ‘all clear’ and is no longer subject to an alert. The Umberumberka Dam (near Broken Hill) is presently at White Alert following heavy rain overnight. This is not expected to cause any problems.
Lighter rainfall is expected to continue into today. Falls north of Coffs Harbour are expected to average 20mm with localised falls up to 30mm. Falls south of Coffs Harbour are expected to average 10mm with localised falls up to 15mm.
Heavy rainfall may develop today along the QLD/NSW border between Moree and Hungerford with average rainfall of 50mm forecast and localised falls up to 80mm possible. A severe weather warning has been released by QLD BoM for damaging winds and heavy rain as a deep monsoon low located near Cloncurry moves towards the south-southeast. It is forecast to enter northern NSW on Sunday. This will weaken as it enters NSW and rain and winds are not expected at this time to cause significant problems. Motorists in the area affected should watch for local stream rises and not drive through flooded causeways.