Premier O'Farrell says that this declaration will "unlock federal and state assistance...emergency assistance for individuals, low interest loans for small business and farmers. (For more information on the assistance head to http://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/nddassistance)
Mr O'Farrell joined 702 ABC Sydney's Richard Glover this afternoon to reflect on what he saw today.
"Well I've seen, you know, further inundation, the Clarence River is about three times its size in parts of its course, lots of farmland under water, lots of, I presume damage to fences, but the good news is even though it peaked at 8.08 metres at Grafton, which is the highest ever peak recorded in the history of the river since Europeans arrived, it didn't do what was expected, which was damaging inundation of that area...
When Glover asked the Premier about how close the water was to breaking the levee at Grafton, he shared quite an incredible story from today-
"Well it held and the deputy regional controller said he was at a part where, as he was standing there the water was starting to come over and remarkably, suddenly a truck of sand appeared, people appeared, they filled sandbags, they topped up the wall and by and large managed to pump the water back out. So an area of Grafton that they evacuated because of concerns about inundation, has escaped those floods... Great planning by the SES, professionals and their volunteers but also to be fair, the Clarence Valley Council and the flood mitigation works they have done in recent times means you can get a record flood and still not have the sort of record damage we have seen in past floods."
41,000 people in Northern NSW have been isolated and the SES has dealt with more than 300 incidents and reports.
The Bureau of Meteorology have stated that the peak of the Clarence River was the highest peak since records began in 1839. The river peaked at 8.08 m around 11 am on Tuesday 29 January. The previous record was 7.9 m in 1890.
Old Koreelah in the Upper Clarence received 205mm of rainfall on January 28th, smashing the previous record of 176.8mm in 1961.
Glover asked the Premier about a possible link between this type of weather event and climate change. This was his response-
"As I was growing up... and I'm almost as old as you, in fact I think I am the same age as you Richard, you know, I inevitably started school with a torrential downpour, I've lived through 40 degree days and at times what appeared to be a week of 40 degree days to my juvenile memory and of course fires...The fact is we have lived with fires, floods and storms in this country as long as Europeans have been here. Our indigenous communities lived with them before that. I just think, particularly in relation to the fire emergency we only had a couple of weeks ago, we have forgotten what a hot summer is like.. These things come and go. We are a country that has equipped ourselves through our emergency services, with paid professional leaders supported strongly by communities, the sort of communities I saw today, rallying to the cause in Grafton".
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