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ABC News
National
Adam Holmes and staff

Tasmanian flood clean-up continues as BOM predicts more rain in coming days

The number of flood-affected properties in Tasmania's north-west and north is approaching 100, as emergency services continue to assess damage in the wake of last week's rainfall.

SES Tasmania acting director Leon Smith said communities were progressively returning to their homes.

"We've got a total of over 100 residential properties and businesses significantly impacted by the inundation between the north-west and the northern area of the state," he said.

"Although the north-west has peaked and has subsided to a point where we're starting to manage the return of people post-evacuation, within the northern area we're still looking at a complex situation whereby although some of the riverine systems are starting to flatten out, some are affected tidally.

"We've got that ebb and flow."

Mr Smith said the SES had "utilised ground crews, drones and a special intelligence gathering helicopter over the last few days to identify flood impacts across Tasmania".

"They have identified damaged bridges, roads, homes, and other impacts. The information is being used by government agencies and municipal councils to support affected communities' recovery from the event."

The helicopter from Victoria has the capability to provide near real-time video streaming back to control centres and record geolocated video, photos, and information. 

Data is expected to be assessed over coming days and will inform recovery planning, Mr Smith said.

To date 53 residential, 18 businesses and 21 community facilities have been damaged by the floodwaters in the north and north-west regions.

The SES did not receive any new requests for assistance overnight, but crews were actively monitoring conditions along some of the rivers throughout the night and into this morning.

Tears as wildlife park animals found safe

The manager of a wildlife park in the state's north-west said it was miraculous that their animals survived the severe flooding.

Wings Wildlife Park at Gunns Plains feared that its marmosets and meerkats had been injured or killed when their enclosures smashed into each other in floodwater.

The business was able to prepare as much as possible but flooding lifted a four-by-six foot marmoset enclosure made of steel and glass and crashed it into the meerkat enclosure.

Manager Gena Cantwell said they had prepared for the worst and became emotional when describing the moment they realised the animals had survived.

"We had staff on site ... and we got to the point that we could get to the marmoset enclosure, we couldn't reach it but we could get close enough to it," she said.

"Nic, one of our staff members, she started to call out to them like when we feed them and they called back to us, and we knew that they were still there."

"We just could not believe that they were still there, it was honestly gut-wrenching for all of us."

"Once we could get a tractor in and … were able to have people with buckets to get them out, and we got them into warm beds … they were fine, they probably didn't know what the fuss was all about.

"We're there, crying our eyes out." 

Landslide cuts Poatina road

Video has emerged of massive boulders and debris blocking a major road in central Tasmania.

Poatina Road is one of six which remain closed due to several flood damage.

Enormous boulders have smashed the culvert south of Poatina, restricting access through the area for several weeks.

The general manager of State Roads, Denise McIntyre, told ABC Radio Hobart it was not yet known if explosives would be needed.

"We will have our geotechnical experts inspect the area, to investigate and determine what's safe and what's not safe to do and then we will need some rather heavy machinery in to remove the debris," she said.

Other roads still unpassable are Frankford Road, Meander Valley Road, Railton Road, Rebecca Road in the Tarkine, the Tasman Highway between the Sideling and Whish-Wilson Road.

River levels receded overnight, but a major flood warning remained in place for the Meander River at Strathbridge, and a moderate warning for the Macquarie River.

Tidal activity in the kanamaluka/Tamar River is being monitored.

Emergency services are starting to look ahead to another significant rain band that will cross the north and north-west on Friday and into the weekend.

Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Matt Hosie said the same flood-affected areas would be hit.

"We can expect to generally see falls that are reasonably solid through the north of the state, mostly around the Western Tiers and the north-west, and also across the north-eastern ranges so including Scottsdale, St Helens," he said.

Falls between 10 and 20 millimetres are expected on Friday, with isolated totals approaching 50 millimetres.

More rain is then expected on Saturday and Sunday.

Mr Hosie said it was not as intense as last week, but could still cause concern.

"The falls are definitely not quite as extreme as what we were forecasting, and indeed saw, last week," he said.

"But given all our catchments now are extremely saturated, dams are full, we can expect even these modest falls to bring river rises and perhaps even depending on where we are some flash flooding perhaps as well.

"Certainly a risky situation, even though the falls are reasonably consistent with what we may see with a passing cold front for instance."

Farmers' 'crops lost, fences down'

The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association president, Ian Sauer, said the devastation for farming communities is widespread. 

"This is pretty devastating in places … it's enormous, it's unfair, and the water still hasn't revealed the total damage yet and that's going to take a few more days to come," he said. 

"There's enormous amounts of devastation, paddocks have disappeared, crops have been lost, fences have gone down, pumps have been lost."

He said several roads and bridges have also been severely damaged which will impact the transport of stock and crops. 

"The most obvious is the Poatina Road, there are boulders up there that have been estimated to be 200 tonnes, so that's going to take a long time to clean up," he said.

"The financial and social cost is really going to be hard to measure ... this is just another blow for farmers who already deal with a lot," Mr Sauer said.

"It's huge,  this isn't over."

For the latest updates and warnings head to the Tas Alerts website.

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