NSW floods: SES provides natural disaster update

Australian Community Media

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) provide an update on the major flooding as the state is set to face prolonged heavy rainfall. Press conference at 10am, May 22, 2025

Transcript

00:00We are talking 140 flood warnings, 34 of those flood warnings are emergency warnings.

00:07When we say emergency warnings, they are around evacuations through to either in some cases

00:13we still have very active areas that are in fact emergency warnings that are moving to

00:17high ground or isolating areas.

00:20I'll continue to stress the importance of heeding the warnings and that this is about

00:26us trying to help the community prepare well in advance to any potential flood waters.

00:32We still have a very active situation in the context of the rainfall of 100 millimetres

00:37through to embedded storms.

00:38The embedded storms will continue to see flash flooding.

00:42The flash flooding is a high risk on anyone that is travelling on the roads and again you

00:45need to be situationally aware and not just rely on the warnings.

00:49We will continue to put the warnings out but you cannot just rely on the warnings.

00:53If you live in areas that you feel that you are unsafe or have concerns, that is a very

00:59good time to actually relocate in many cases.

01:01Our focus today very much is in the areas of Taree right through to Kempsey, so there is

01:08a range of communities from Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Bellingen and Yerunga.

01:13They are just to name some of those areas.

01:16That's the areas that we have currently got active flooding.

01:19We continue to have flood rescue calls come in.

01:22We have worked through nearly all of the flood rescues from the previous 24 hours but again

01:27already this morning we have had another 33 flood rescue requests this morning.

01:32That shows that this continues to be a very active environment for us.

01:37I do acknowledge for the communities that we are dealing with in many communities record

01:44floods.

01:45In memory of those local communities they have not seen this level of flooding but again

01:50it is why we have tried to communicate and aim to communicate very early.

01:54Some of the first warnings and messaging around this weather event was over a week ago.

02:00Then the focus in terms of the weather event in terms of mid north coast, then our system

02:04has very much been aligned to providing advice messaging which means stay informed.

02:08This is all on the Hazards Near Me app.

02:10That's why we keep pointing back to the Hazards Near Me app.

02:14Then prior to the flooding that we saw and some of the significant impacts that we are still

02:20feeling now, that's the emergency warnings.

02:23The emergency warnings that are the last line of defence in terms of asking people to relocate

02:28where it is safe to do so.

02:30We are well resourced.

02:31We have significant helicopters, significant boats, lots of frontline personnel from SES

02:38right through to all of the support agencies and the emergency services from every colour,

02:42every emergency service that continues to be there and will continue to be there.

02:47These are very high risk operations.

02:49I will not compromise the safety of my people or any other emergency services people but

02:55these are whilst highly trained people, they are working very closely with the community.

03:00What the community can do is to help us is to heed those warnings, relocate early, evacuate

03:07if it's safe to do so when you receive these emergency evacuation warnings.

03:12If you cannot, please call us and that's why we'll have the capabilities and the support

03:17and the focus that we need to and will continue to have.

03:20I will leave it there for the moment but suffice to say next 24 to 48 hours is still a key focus

03:27in terms of the pointy end of our response operations, acknowledging that we have still

03:32got weather that will continue into the weekend and potentially further weather including rainfall

03:38and significant winds into next week as well.

03:40So we are playing for the long haul here.

03:42In addition to our own resources we do have some interstate resources coming in to support

03:47us and will continue to do so and assess that situation as the weather emerges.

03:52the future.

03:53Also there we will reach out well where, the radiation results from the storm shot in

03:55another, or where we take care of or what we are entering our nations.

03:58Firstly, to suggest the risk of our problems, Linda Sum unit of the storm shot of Distanz,

03:59ahlen一次,

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