What we learned today, Tuesday 1 March
With that, we will bid adieu for this evening. Wherever you are, I hope you are safe.
Here were today’s major developments, which were, again, predominantly devoted to floods.
- The national flood death toll stands at 10 after the bodies of two people were discovered today – a 76-year-old man at Glen Esk, Queensland and an 80-year-old woman in Lismore, New South Wales.
- Queensland and NSW have broken a string of rain records, the Bureau of Meteorology revealed this afternoon. In the six days from 23 to 28 February, at least 33 places in Queensland recorded more than one metre of rain, parts of south-east Queensland and north-east NSW had at least 2.5 times their average rainfall for the month, and in Brisbane, for the first time ever, the city had three consecutive days when more than 200mm fell.
- An evacuation order was listed for the Ballina CBD this afternoon as flood waters continued to rise. It followed another evacuation order listed for South Ballina this morning.
- The prime minister, Scott Morrison, says there have already been 80,000 claims for disaster support in 35 active local government areas. A number of people remain unaccounted for as evacuations continue.
- Meanwhile, a statewide internet outage hit Tasmania for seven hours today after two Telstra cables carrying mobile and fixed data traffic were taken out. Services have now been fully restored.
- The PM has announced $70m in Ukraine defence support, the majority of which will be lethal weapons, and $35m in aid in the wake of the ongoing crisis.
- And in an updated forecast, the BoM is predicting Sydney can expect 150-200mm of rain tomorrow, up from the earlier prediction of 60-90mm.
Updated
Despite receding floodwaters, the city of #Logan remains marooned due to road closures. @njkelly9 #9News pic.twitter.com/XKBI8pSGqy
— 9News Queensland (@9NewsQueensland) March 1, 2022
