No relief in sight for flood-hit NSW

9 Feb 2012, 1:00 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Some of the people in Goodooga and Lightning Ridge could be cut off for weeks and the State Emergency Service (SES) is urging them to prepare for the worst. (File: AAP)

Some of the people in Goodooga and Lightning Ridge could be cut off for weeks and the State Emergency Service (SES) is urging them to prepare for the worst. (File: AAP)

Another 6000 people in northern NSW are expected to become isolated over the next few days as floodwaters continue to flow downstream, with farmers facing losses of at least $750million as a result of the floods.

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Another 6000 people in northern NSW are expected to become isolated over the next few days as floodwaters continue to flow downstream from southern Queensland.

Some of those people in Goodooga and Lightning Ridge could be cut off for weeks and the State Emergency Service (SES) is urging them to prepare for the worst.

SES spokesman Dave Owens says resupplying residents who are already stranded is also a priority.

"Our role has been to watch the levels of the water as they start to move down into the state and then down through the state," Mr Owens said.

"A lot of it will be the water from Queensland but the water saddling around Moree and Wee Waa - that's also feeding into the river systems in NSW."

Goodooga with 250 people and Lightning Ridge with 4000 people are expected to be isolated in the next few days by the floodwaters coming down from Queensland and Moree.

"Lightning Ridge could be isolated for up to two weeks and that would be predominantly from the Queensland floodwater," Mr Owens said.

"Goodooga will be isolated probably tomorrow ... for up to eight weeks."

Mr Owens said together with several other towns there could be more than 6000 further isolations.

"The weather forecast is still indicating that there's going to be a likelihood of storms within inland and coastal NSW," he said.

"Of course those storms can bring with them quite heavy localised rain.

"We've got 27 aircraft across the state - our major focus is on resupply."

About 5000 people continue to be isolated in the northwest of the state including Mungindi, Collarenebri and Wee Waa.

There are also flood watch alerts for parts of southern NSW including Bega, Molonglo and Queanbeyan.

View Queensland, NSW floods 2012 in a larger map

 

FARMERS COULD LOSE $750m

The agricultural industry is expected to suffer losses of at least $750 million as a result of the devastating NSW floods, with tens of thousands of livestock at risk.

As floodwaters from Queensland and northern NSW slowly flow towards western NSW townships such as Walgett and Bourke, farmers are already counting the cost of flooding around Moree and in the Brewarrina district.

Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Flood Incident Controller, Simon Oliver, said up 10,000 sheep had most likely been lost to the floodwaters, while extensive damage to crops, pastures and infrastructure was also being recorded.

A further 100,000 livestock in areas downstream were also at risk, and the DPI was now working to help farmers relocate animals to higher ground.

"There is a conservative figure being thrown around from a preliminary estimate of $750 million, that includes all impacts on primary industries like damage to infrastructure, the cotton fields and roads, buildings and fodder storages, estimated stock losses, pasture losses and crop losses," Mr Oliver told AAP.

"Obviously those figures are going to change significantly as we can get a better idea as the water clears."

Mr Oliver said struggling farmers had a mixed response to the devastation. "In a lot of cases the farmers haven't really had that much opportunity to get out and have a good look around," he said.

"It's a mixed response. Some of them are devastated because they've lost stock. The ones that have been through it many times, they take it on the chin as part of farming."

Touring Moree on Wednesday, NSW Emergency Services Minister Mike Gallacher said the damage bill for the town and surrounds could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, with the extent of the destruction not yet known.

He said it was "probably a bit early" to put a dollar figure on the damage caused by the flooding, the worst the town has seen since 1955. "But talking to people on the ground up here, we're going to be well into the hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars," he said.

"We still have no understanding of the outlying areas of councils in this area, just how bad the impact has been on infrastructure."

SES Commissioner Murray Kear praised the clean-up of Moree, saying CBD streets flooded on the weekend had already been cleared of mud from the Mehi River.

"I was here at the height of the flood in Moree only a few days ago, where water was a metre deep up against some homes," said Mr Kear, who visited Moree with Mr Gallacher.

"Today the water has completely moved away, but what it has left is a terrible mud residue, which is being cleared up very quickly.

"But it will be many many days until a figure can be placed on the damage to roads, to infrastructure, and of course people's private property." Mr Gallacher and Mr Kear also visited Walgett in the state's west on Wednesday, where preparations are being made for the oncoming floodwaters, expected on Monday. Mr Kear said 5000 people around the state were still isolated, but that figure could rise to 10,000 as floodwaters reached towns like Walgett, Brewarrina and Bourke.

"We are now planning across a large area of the state for this large body of water to very slowly move in a south-westerly direction," Mr Kear said. "The waters coming down from Queensland ... is already in these western rivers heading west, and (there is) an already major flooded Darling River.

"Those three components are joining together to mean some possible major flooding for towns on the way down the Darling system." Mr Gallacher on Wednesday extended natural disaster declarations to the Liverpool Plains, Ballina, Upper Hunter and Gloucester local government areas.

The latest declaration brings the number of disaster zones to 21.
 

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