News

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie continues to move south to south east across inland Queensland.

With major flooding currently forecast for areas within North East NSW due to the remnants of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie which has caused significant rainfall in North East NSW. NSW SES volunteers are currently responding to major flooding that is occurring and preparing for future flooding over the next 24-48 hours.

The NSW SES has received a total of 940 jobs and 48 Flood rescues since Thursday morning. The locations with the greatest impacts for flood assistance tasks include Lismore City 260 jobs, Tweed Heads 89 jobs, Murwillumbah 78 jobs and Yamba with 43 jobs.

NSW SES has issued Evacuation Orders for approximately 15,000 people in the far north east of the State. Full list below:

• Flood Evacuation Order - South Murwillumbah, Condong and Tumbulgum
• Flood Evacuation Order - Chinderah, Kingscliff, Fingal Head and Bilambil
• Flood Evacuation Order - Lismore CBD, and North and South Lismore
• Flood Evacuation Order - Tweed Heads South and Tweed Heads West

If you are in these locations, do not delay your evacuation. Roads will be congested or closed. Wherever possible, people should go and stay with family or friends or make other accommodation arrangements. Click here to read the full details on these Orders 

Other significant issues include:

Shearwater Private School and Pacific Coast Christian School were self-evacuated earlier today due to flooding. Schools will be closed in the upper catchments of the Tweed and Brunswick River systems including Casino High, Casino West and Casino Public Schools.

Around 100 children are isolated at an outdoor education school camp West of Uki, they are safe and will remain in place until the conditions improve.

A total of 228mm of rainfall since 09:00 am Thursday has been recorded at Lismore airport.

A Severe Weather Warning has been issued for destructive winds, heavy rainfall, abnormally high tides and damaging surf for people in the Northern Rivers and parts of the Mid North Coast, Hunter, Metropolitan, North West Slopes and Plains and Northern Tablelands locations. Lord Howe Island also has a Severe Weather Warning in place for damaging winds and heavy rain.

Several Flood Warnings have also been issued, the river affected include the Tweed, Wilsons, Orara, Upper Macintyre, Bogan, Brunswick and Marshalls creek. To view all the latest weather and flood warnings or for current river heights for NSW, visit the Bureau of Meteorology’s website 

It is expected that heavy rain in the far northeast will continue overnight and will ease during Friday, with the chance of some thunderstorms.

NSW SES urge people in the affected locations to never walk, drive, ride or play through floodwaters. Motorists should avoid driving through flood waters, which may have washed away road surfaces and could be deeper or faster-flowing than they look. You can plan your trip by visiting Live Traffic.

Click here for more information on what you can do during a flood

Image above shows the total SES jobs across the state over the last 24 hours.