Man found dead in flooded NSW home
A man’s body has been found in a flood-affected home on the NSW mid-north coast.
Emergency services were called to a property on North Moto Road about 3pm yesterday after reports a body was located, NSW police said in a statement.
The body of a 63-year-old man was found in a residence affected by flooding.
Police have launched an investigation and a report is being prepared for the coroner.
Key events
NSW premier Chris Minns says “we’ve got to do better” following Sydney commuters experiencing severe disruptions after a high-voltage wire collapsed on to a train on Tuesday afternoon, crippling the city’s rail network.
He said on ABC News Breakfast a short while ago:
I think the commuting public has been sick of the service that hadn’t been provided. It’s a basic requirement of the State Government to get people to and from work on time and we haven’t been doing it. We’ve got to do better.
We’ve put about $1.5bn into the infrastructure of the heavy rail network, so that’s not including the metros that run, that we’re building underground at the moment. That’s the heavy rail infrastructure, but we need to make sure it runs well and appropriately. We need to focus on punctuality. And communication is a key thing. Sometimes there’s a major disruption to the network and it’s easier for families to organise their lives if the news comes through at 6:00pm rather than 6:00am. It’s too late in the morning if you’ve got kids and the job starts soon and there’s a lot of things happening so they’re things we need to clear up. I know we’re on a short leash and we’ve got to do better.
Josh Butler
PM shares statement after death of man on NSW mid-north coast
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has shared a statement on the death of a man in floods in NSW.
“This is devastating news that a man has died at a residence impacted by flooding on the New South Wales mid north coast,” the PM said in a written statement.
“The thoughts of all Australians are with his loved ones and the community at this time.”
Minns says community ‘no doubt bracing’ for more bad news after flooding death
The NSW premier is “bracing for more tough news” following news of a death in the state’s inundated mid-north coast.
Chris Minns said on ABC News Breakfast:
It’s devastating for that man and his family and his friends. [It’s] a tight-knit community on the mid-north coast, and to lose anyone in these natural disasters is obviously horrifying. So I’m very sorry for that man’s passing.
We should be bracing for more tough news over the next 24 hours. We’re very grateful we got enormous amount of expertise, emergency service personnel and thousands of volunteers who are on site, but when you have major natural disasters, obviously, you get terrible news as a result, and that community no doubt will be bracing in the next 24 hours.
Premier apologises to flood-affected residents experiencing ‘anxious’ hours-long waits for rescue
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says waiting hours for flood rescue response must be an “incredibly anxious period”. He is speaking on ABC News Breakfast.
2,500 workers, 500 vehicles and boats and 13 helicopters make up the major emergency response operation, Minns says. Asked about a listener who waited six to seven hours for rescue, the premier says:
I’m sorry about that. That would be incredibly anxious period, waiting that period of time for a rescue.
I can assure the public that we have got a massive emergency service contingent on the Mid North Coast. There’s 2,500 emergency service workers including 2,200 SES volunteers and professionals that are on site. Over 500 vehicles and boasts, 13 helicopters, hundreds of drones, so this is a major operation.
Unfortunately, we’re getting better at deploying resources because of natural disasters and the reason for that is because we’re seeing more of them, not less.
Now, the job will be, as we move through the immediate response, we got to get to recovery and make sure these communities can get back on their feet as soon as possible. But as you have just heard, it’s a resilient community, they’re incredibly tough and I expect them to do that pretty quick.
Man found dead in flooded NSW home
A man’s body has been found in a flood-affected home on the NSW mid-north coast.
Emergency services were called to a property on North Moto Road about 3pm yesterday after reports a body was located, NSW police said in a statement.
The body of a 63-year-old man was found in a residence affected by flooding.
Police have launched an investigation and a report is being prepared for the coroner.
Thousands could be isolated in Kempsey as Macleay River breaks levee
50,000 people have been warned they could be isolated today including in Kempsey on the mid-north coast, where the Macleay River has overtopped a levee and is still rising.
Major flooding will continue to impact other nearby areas like Macksville and Port Macquarie.
Farmers have lost livestock washed away by flood waters.
Others are working to help get some of them back, taking to community Facebook pages to track down owners for cattle that have washed up on their properties.
Evacuation centres have been set up at Dungog, Gloucester, Taree, Manning Point, Wingham, Bulahdelah, Tuncurry Beach, Kempsey and Port Macquarie.
The emergency management minister, Kristy McBain, said the commonwealth was working with the NSW government to provide support in 16 local government areas.
“These floods and severe weather are having a huge impact on communities,” she said.
The Insurance Council of Australia said the flooding could be catastrophic, with significant flooding in similar areas in 2022. “We are closely monitoring the severe weather across the entire state,” the council’s chief executive, Andrew Hall, said.
– Australian Associated Press
More than 100 waiting for rescue amid vast deluge
Tens of thousands of people are isolated, while hundreds have been rescued from disastrous flooding as intense rainfall continues.
The heavy falls across the NSW Hunter and mid-north coast regions in recent days have spread to the Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands as a slow-moving trough dumped rain along Australia’s east coast.
Falls between 200 and 300mm in the next 24 hours are likely and may lead to flash flooding, the Bureau of Meteorology warns, around the north coast communities of Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Woolgoolga, Sawtell and Dorrigo.
The bureau said the trough was expected to contract southwards this afternoon.
More than 100 warnings are in place, with local residents in the path of flooding urged to head to higher ground and evacuate if they can.
SES Assistant Commissioner Colin Malone said conditions through the night into this morning had been challenging.
“We’ve seen continual rainfall and very fast flowing rivers which, when combined with flooded roads, have made it very difficult to access some isolated people,” he said.
While dozens of rescues have been completed overnight, they continue to be received.
In the past 24 hours, the SES has carried out about 340 flood rescues and used helicopters to winch stranded residents off their roofs as they responded to 1023 incidents.
More than 100 rescues were outstanding this morning, the SES said.
More to come in the next post.
– Australian Associated Press
Rafqa Touma
Thank you to Martin Farrer for kicking off the blog this morning. I’ll be keeping you posted from here. Let’s go!
Weather bureau expands NSW severe weather warning
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) issued a severe weather warning shortly after 4am which expanded the zone from the already badly hit Hunter Valley and mid-north coast regions to include the Northern Tablelands, Northern Rivers and North West Slopes and Plains.
“Areas of heavy rainfall are expected to persist through Thursday as a weak low-pressure system develops within the trough, and it slowly moves further southwards throughout the day,” the BoM warning said.
It said heavy rainfall was forecast to continue over north-eastern parts of the state overnight on Wednesday and during Thursday bringing 24-hour rainfall totals of up to 300mm in some areas.
“Locally intense rainfall which may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding is also possible for parts of the mid-north coast district and adjacent Northern Tablelands during Thursday,” the notice said.
“This includes Kempsey, and coastal areas around Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Heads. Six-hourly rainfall totals between 100 and 150mm are possible with 24-hourly rainfall totals reaching between 200 and 300mm.”
Some 115 warnings were in place on Wednesday night, with local residents in the path of flooding urged to head to higher ground and evacuate if they could. The SES carried out more than 300 flood rescues on Wednesday alone, using helicopters to winch stranded residents off their roofs.
The NSW SES commissioner, Michael Wassing, said rescue conditions had been difficult and dangerous.
“I cannot stress enough that it is important to heed the warnings of evacuations,” he said. “I cannot guarantee that our crews will be able to immediately rescue people.”
“Super saturated” river catchments were responding quickly to the rain, he said.
Evacuation centres have been set up at Dungog, Gloucester, Taree, Manning Point, Wingham, Bulahdelah, Tuncurry Beach, Kempsey and Port Macquarie.
The federal emergency management minister, Kristy McBain, said the commonwealth was working with the NSW government to provide support in 16 local government areas.
“These floods and severe weather are having a huge impact on communities,” she said.
Read our full story here:
Transport NSW says Sydney train network back on schedule
Sydney’s rail network is again running to its regular timetable, transport authorities have confirmed in time for the Thursday morning peak, after a horror two days of network outages and delays caused by downed electrical wires that trapped a passenger train on Tuesday.
Transport for New South Wales said “passengers can expect a good frequency” across both suburban and intercity lines.
A “full timetable” will run on Thursday, with the exception of two damaged train sets which have been scheduled to run at a time of day with “minimal impact”. In a statement, Transport for NSW said:
We thank the engineering crews who worked tirelessly to fix the issues on the ground, the operations staff in the rail operations centre who got us back to timetabled services, and the station staff who helped passengers through a very difficult period.
We acknowledge how frustrating these past couple of days has been for passengers and apologise for the disruption.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has apologised to commuters, pledged a fare-free day on the transport network this coming Monday and launched a snap review into the incident.
Minns said the downed wires “happened at the worst possible location at the worst possible time” on Tuesday.
You can read about the vulnerability of Sydney’s rail network to widespread delays from a single point of failure, and the agency’s “archaic” internal communications approach, here:
Sussan Ley’s office rejects Bridget McKenzie’s claim on 7.30
Josh Taylor
The reason for the Coalition split remains a point of dispute between the Liberals and the Nationals after the Senate leader Bridget McKenzie’s claim – that Nationals shadow cabinet members’ ability to vote against shadow cabinet decisions in the parliament was not part of the Nationals’ demands – was swiftly denied by Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s office.
McKenzie told ABC’s 7.30 program Ley could not guarantee policies on divestiture powers for supermarkets, mobile phone coverage for regional Australia, lifting the moratorium on nuclear and the retention of the $20bn regional Australia future fund.
She refused to. She put it in writing. We put that to our party room and our party room decided we were to leave the coalition.
When asked whether Ley was lying when stating Nationals’ shadow ministers wanted to break cabinet solidarity as a condition of a new agreement, McKenzie said it was “not part of our consideration” and the demand was limited to those four policy areas.
McKenzie said:
Well, Sussan Ley wasn’t part of our party room discussions. I was. I won’t go into the details of that, but I can categorically tell you why we made the decision we did and what that was based on. It’s why we sought, in writing from the Liberal leader, her guarantee around those four policy areas.
7.30 host Sarah Ferguson read out a statement from Ley’s office refuting the claim:
‘It is not correct to subject that shadow cabinet solidarity was not a sticking point’, and they – that is, Sussan Ley’s office – have that in writing.
Read the full story here:
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then it will be Rafqa Touma to take the wheel.
With 48,000 people already stranded by flooding in the New South Wales Hunter Valley and mid-north coast regions, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe warning for “prolonged” heavy rainfall that also includes the adjacent areas of Northern Tablelands, Northern Rivers and North West Slopes and Plains. Some areas could cop 300mm over the next 24 hours and there was also a risk of life-threatening flash floods. More coming up.
The reason for the Coalition split remains a point of dispute between the Liberals and the Nationals after Bridget McKenzie claimed last night on the ABC’s 7.30 program that Nationals shadow cabinet members’ ability to vote against shadow cabinet decisions in the parliament was not part of the Nationals’ demands – a claim denied by Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s office. More coming up.
