NSW Premier Chris Minns gives Cyclone Alfred update

NSW Premier Chris Minns stresses that this emergency is not over and the next 24 hours are crucial for Northern Rivers communities.

Transcript

00:00The rivers are full, the rain is continuing and expected to keep falling in the days ahead

00:09and wind conditions are very high and extreme, particularly on the coast, particularly in

00:16the Byron Shire right up to the Queensland border.

00:19So for those three reasons it's crucially important that the public not dismiss this

00:26weather event as something that's already passed.

00:28It really doesn't matter to us whether it's been downgraded from a tropical cyclone to

00:33a weather event or whether it's still a tropical cyclone.

00:37The effect on the northern rivers communities and lower down into the Coffs area is still

00:44the same for thousands and thousands of families.

00:47That's a really important point, this can't be just trivialised or put to one side.

00:51The emergency, the next 24 hours will be crucially important as we look to see what the weather

00:56event will do to these communities.

00:59I also want to make it clear that the SES have been working incredibly hard over the

01:03last 48 hours, as have police and other emergency services, but there's been 29 flood rescues

01:10across the northern rivers from different SES volunteer brigades.

01:16This I think speaks to the enormous bravery, the skill and dedication of many, many SES

01:22individuals and crews and teams.

01:24There's been 40 flood rescue crews that have been pre-positioned into the northern rivers

01:29and as you can see they were needed.

01:32There's also of course very sadly a man missing in the Dorrigo region and that's now a search

01:37mission in that upper Coffs Harbour region.

01:40We're obviously concerned about that but we need to make it clear that the message hasn't

01:45deviated, particularly as we move through to the flood part of this natural disaster

01:51and that is never drive through flood waters, never put yourself in danger.

01:56It's the most common way of people losing their lives during these flooding events.

02:01You risk your own life, a passenger in your car, a family member and also SES and police

02:07officials who will be sent in to try and rescue you in the event that you're in difficult

02:12situations and they'll always try but we don't want to put them in harm's way.