Evacuation orders are in place for several northern New South Wales towns amid warnings of life-threatening flash floods, just four weeks after record floods forced thousands of people from their homes in the region.
As of 8.30am Tuesday, the NSW State Emergency Service had issued six evacuation orders covering 6,600 people in the northern rivers region. There was also one evacuation warning for 7,800 people, including the Lismore central business district.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall and damaging winds for a large region of eastern NSW, from near Port Macquarie north to the Queensland border. A region of Queensland was also covered by an alert after heavy rain dumped about 300mm over parts of the Gold Coast in less than a day.
@NSWSES Evacuations begin in NSW Northern Rivers (again), with 236mm of rain at Coolangatta (Qld) since 0900 yesterday, Ballina 144mm, and rising. And a severe weather warning, with 6-hours totals of 300mm possible: https://t.co/E0A4G0fr0O @bom_au pic.twitter.com/zXhcYvxhVS
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) March 28, 2022
“A low pressure system will drift southwards across north-eastern NSW today, causing heavy rainfall in the region, and with locally intense falls within embedded thunderstorms,” the bureau warning said.
“Heavy rainfall which may lead to flash flooding is forecast over the northern rivers district tonight, extending into the mid north coast and northern tablelands districts from Tuesday morning,” it said.
“Locally intense rainfall leading to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding is possible with thunderstorms with six-hourly rainfall totals in excess of 200mm, possibly reaching up to 300mm,” it said.
The NSW State Emergency Service issued evacuation orders for parts of Lismore on Monday night, while those living in low-lying parts of Billinudgel from 5am local time, on Tuesday. Residents of low-lying parts of Mullumbimby and CBD were ordered to leave by 7am, with Tumbulgum later added to the evacuation list.
We have issued ❗️EVACUATION WARNINGS❗️ for low lying parts of North Lismore and parts of South Lismore, to stay up to date with our current warnings visit👉https://t.co/t578A4vhe8
— NSW SES (@NSWSES) March 28, 2022
The SES set up evacuation centres in about half a dozen centres, from Lismore to Kingscliff, Murwillumbah and Mullumbimby.
In the past two days, SES crews attended 2,800 jobs in the NSW northern zone, including about 1,000 flood rescues, SES spokesperson Duyen Nguyen said. “Today’s going to be escalating” in threats, she said.
For Lismore, the Wilsons River was again forecast to reach major flood levels, the bureau said.
The river, which reached record levels of about 14.4 metres four weeks ago, may exceed the major flood level of 9.7m by 2pm Tuesday. It may exceed the 10.6m level of the town’s levee by the afternoon, with further rises possible.
Tuesday is the main day for rain in NSW for this low, but showers linger for days (but in much smaller amounts) along the coast. @BOM_au pic.twitter.com/677TckdQ7R
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) March 28, 2022
Elly Bird, a councillor in Lismore, told ABC’s RN Breakfast program, that the town had spent days clearing houses and city centre of flood-damaged debris, “questioning what’s next and is this going to happen to us again”.
“Here we are 28 days later [our community] is just exhausted, worried and incredibly distressed about having to do this again so soon,” Bird said.
Not many people had managed to move back to their “empty shells of houses” but some had, she said.
The town was not expecting the river to reach the levels of the historic floods of earlier this month, Bird said, adding the emergency services including the Australian defence force personnel were in the area to help with preparations.
Other rivers that could have major flooding include the Tweed, Bellinger and Orara rivers, the bureau said.
In the Sydney region, Richmond collected more than 80mm of rain overnight, and there was a warning for minor to moderate flooding for the Hawkesbury-Nepean River that flows past the town.
Observatory Hill, near Sydney’s CBD, had collected about 56mm in the 22 hours to 7am. The city could collect another 30mm-45mm on Tuesday, the bureau said.
There was the chance of a thunderstorm, possibly severe with heavy rain, which may lead to flash flooding, it said.
