NSW flooding: Lismore ordered to evacuate, Murwillumbah residents stuck on roofs
Updated
Murwillumbah area residents have sought refuge in the ceiling cavities and on the roofs of their houses, as emergency services are unable to dispatch boats due to safety risks.
Flood records have broken in the town and there are a significant number of people needing flood rescue in the area.
The State Emergency Service (SES) is working to get rescue planes in the air, but winds of between 50 and 90 kilometres per hour are expected.
NSW warnings:
- Evacuation order for Murwillumbah CBD and Murwillumbah south and east, Condong and Tumbulgum areas
- Evacuation order for Chinderah, Kingscliff, Fingal Head and Bilambil
- Evacuation order for Lismore CBD, North and South Lismore
- Tweed Heads, Tweed Heads South and West
- Murwillumbah CBD and East
- Wilsons River at Lismore expected to get to higher levels than 2001 and 2005 floods
- See the full list of SES flood warnings
In Lismore, the SES is facing 100 outstanding rescues and has warned people to cooperate and stay out of floodwaters, which are at "unprecedented" levels across the north coast.
Richmond-Tweed SES spokeswoman Libby Spash said "sightseers" in Lismore CBD and those driving through floodwaters were taking up rescuers' time.
"Our Lismore unit controller has called up and said 'we need some help here, the community needs to get on board with us and stay out of that water'," Ms Spash said.
Floodwaters were too dangerous to allow rescuers to access some people, Ms Spash said, and the advice was to place a white sheet on the roof if help was required — when it was possible and safe to do so.
Sirens sounded early this morning to warn Lismore residents they must immediately leave as a torrent of water rushed through central Lismore.
The town's levee has been topped for the first time since it was built 12 years ago.
Residents taken by surprise by rapidly rising fast water
The SES said the situation was extremely serious and warned residents to act with extreme caution.
The SES assistant commissioner Kaylene Jones said there were concerns some people may have been swept away by the floodwaters.
"Some people potentially have been washed downstream and there's a potential that some of those flood rescues may indeed result in tragedies," she said.
SES spokesman Ian Leckie said many people were trapped across the region because of the rapidly rising water.
"We have everything happening — we have people on rooftops, we have people stuck in vans, it is an utter disaster," he said.
"This is the fastest event we have seen in this area for a long, long time. The rate of rise has caught people unaware and they are trapped."
Lismore Mayor Isaac Smith said the water is not coming over the top of the levee as fast as expected, meaning it is doing its job in protecting the town.
"At this stage, the levee looks strong, it's held and done its job," he said.
"It's given everyone a lot of time to get out of the basin, and we're just waiting now to see how high up the water comes."
SES acting deputy commissioner Mark Morrow said many businesses and homes in the Lismore CBD would be inundated with up to three metres of water.
"They're talking about this flood exceeding the heights of 2001 and 2005, but what that means is that most of the businesses in the Lismore CBD will have up to three metres of water over the floor.
"That's up to about roof level in their house or even higher... a lot of people that are going to be displaced from their businesses or their homes."
Hydrologist Justin Robinson said the swollen Tweed River had caused a lot of damage in Murwillumbah.
"We've estimated it to be about 6.2 metres at Murwillumbah, around 4:30am. That's actually higher than the record flood in 1954, which was 6.05 metres and higher than the 1974 flood event, which was 5.8 metres. So, obviously, a very serious flood situation," he said.
The SES has received over 1,300 calls for help across northern NSW and 148 rescues were carried out overnight as ex-tropical Cyclone Debbie continues to dump heavy rain across the region.
Over 20,000 people have been evacuated from areas around Lismore, Murwillumbah, Ocean Shores, Kyogle and Kingscliff and another 20,000 people are subject to an evacuation order, mainly on the Tweed River but also on the Wilsons River at Lismore.
People who need assistance are advised to go to an evacuation centre at Southern Cross University on Military Road in East Lismore.
All schools from Grafton to Tweed Heads are closed today.
Topics: floods, disasters-and-accidents, weather, murwillumbah-2484, nsw, lismore-2480, north-lismore-2480, condong-2484, tweed-heads-2485, tumbulgum-2490, bilambil-2486, mullumbimby-2482, uki-2484, fingal-head-2487, kingscliff-2487, chinderah-2487, tweed-heads-west-2485, tweed-heads-south-2486
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