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- 8 March 2006
North Coast Flooding
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Page: 21185
The Hon. GREG DONNELLY: My question without notice is for the Minister for Emergency Services. Will the Minister update the House on the efforts of the State Emergency Service to assist residents affected by floods on the North Coast?
The Hon. TONY KELLY: I thank the Hon. Greg Donnelly for his continuing interest in the North Coast of New South Wales. I again thank members of our emergency services in the State's north for their hard work over the past week and, indeed, throughout this summer. Members of the State Emergency Service [SES] have been kept particularly busy since last Thursday when torrential rain began falling in the Bellinger, Orara and Nambucca river catchments. With an average of 170 millimetres falling across the Bellingen district within 24 hours and steady rain continuing over the next three days, widespread flooding throughout the valleys of this picturesque region was inevitable. I inform honourable members that today the Government has declared the Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Nambucca and Clarence Valley shires a natural disaster area. This triggers a range of assistance for residents, business owners and councils where properties were damaged. In particular, this will ensure the councils will be reimbursed for the cost of repairing public infrastructure, including local roads and bridges damaged by fast-flowing floodwaters and debris.
A number of local roads were cut, including the bridge across the Bellinger River in Bellingen and the main thoroughfare, the Waterfall Way, isolating the town's 2,500 residents from the coast. By Friday afternoon, up to 15 low-level crossings and bridges were under water in the upper Bellinger valley. The floodwaters peaked at the Bellingen Bridge around 1.00 p.m. on Friday, with the bridge able to be reopened by Saturday morning. In nearby Thora, the river peaked at 6.7 metres on Friday morning with major flooding. Rural property owners upstream of Thora in the Darkwood area remained isolated until Monday morning. More than 100 SES volunteers from nine units were on the ground to assist the residents of Bellingen and the surrounding communities with evacuations, road closures and damage from minor flooding. A caravan park at Repton, near Urunga, was evacuated to escape rising floodwater, horses were rescued from flooding paddocks, and SES volunteers were able to ferry vital blood supplies to Bellingen Hospital.
In all, nine SES flood boats were at the ready for evacuations and to provide food and medical supplies to stranded residents, if needed. Helicopters also were available for these operations if required. Further north, heavy rains and winds lashed the Northern Rivers and Tweed regions as well, without causing the same amount of damage as in the four shires covered by today's disaster declaration. The SES received about 50 calls for assistance in its Richmond Tweed division and volunteers from five units were busy clearing trees off roads, tarping roofs and helping with other minor flood damage. The emergency services have rescued a number of people from vehicles in floodwaters over the past week and I would again caution people against driving through floodwaters, which can be unpredictable and dangerous.
This week's rainfall comes on the tail of one of the North Coast region's wettest summers. I understand some towns recorded their wettest January for 40 years. This has meant many hours of hard, wet and hazardous work for local SES volunteers over the past eight weeks. Extraordinary rainfall from 18 to 20 January led to widespread flash flooding in Lismore and the surrounding region. The Government has also declared this event a natural disaster, covering Lismore City and the Ballina, Byron, Kyogle, Richmond Valley and Tweed shires, in order to assist the community with the cost of repairing damage, particularly to public infrastructure. Around 200 SES volunteers turned out to respond to more than 150 calls for help. As usual, they were assisted by members of the NSW Fire Brigades and the Rural Fire Service, along with local police and council personnel. The emergency services assisted councils with several road closures, including the Bruxner and Pacific highways, and sandbagged shops and homes. I know the House will join with me in thanking the SES volunteers for their help.
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