‘Biblical’ Floods Hammer Coastal Towns In QLD & Northern NSW
Mikey Wright, Joel Parkinson, and Ryan Hipwood bust out their ski’s to help with the rescue effort.
2022 has been the wettest summer in decades for people on Australia’s East Coast. The La Nina weather pattern and warm sea temperatures off the Tasman are thought to be responsible for the record level of rainfall parts of South-East QLD and Northern NSW are experiencing.
Currently, 16,000 people are thought to be displaced by the ongoing flooding, 7 people have been confirmed dead in Queensland. In the town of Lismore, a regional center in the Northern Rivers, 37 km from Byron Bay, the Richmond River has risen 14m after being hit with 406mm of rain since Sunday morning. It is the most severe flood in its history.
Twelve evacuation orders are currently in place for specific NSW locales, and countless roads have closed after being deemed unsafe to drive, you can find live updates of road closures here. You can find the full list of evacuation centers here.
The latest forecast from the BOM says: “A high pressure system near New Zealand is directing a deep, moist easterly flow over New South Wales. A stationary trough off the north coast is producing continued heavy rainfall. This trough will shift over the northern waters this evening developing a low pressure centre. The low will slowly track south along the coast on Tuesday and intensify into an East Coast Low by the evening, with damaging winds, large and powerful surf, and heavy rain producing flooding possible. The low will continue tracking south on Wednesday before weakening by Thursday and pushing into the Tasman Sea”
Hundreds of rescues have been carried out today by both citizens and emergency service teams. Surfers involved in the rescue effort were Mikey Wright who launched his boat and ski at midday, Joel Parkinson who helped at Tumbulgum, and Ryan Hipwood at Cabarita. The SES posted a tweet early today asking “anyone with a tinnie in the Tweed or Lismore areas to make themselves known to SES”, the post has since been removed.
The government has issued those in affected areas $1000 disaster relief payments which they can access via MyGov. For more on how you can help, see here.
Stay safe out there.
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