Portland Bay bulk carrier in ‘serious situation’ but ‘stable at present’
Briefly at the end of that ABC RN interview, Steph Cooke gives an update on the Portland Bay bulk carrier that is currently stranded off the coast of Royal National Park:
It’s a very serious situation, there’s no doubt about that. I mean, it is stable at present. And we look forward to that situation being resolved today.
By way of discussing the suitability of current infrastructure, Macdonald mentions the Windsor Bridge, which is supposed to be flood resistant but has been flooded multiple times now.
Cooke:
I think it’s sort of well understood that you know, we need to continue to build these [flood resistant] elements into everything that we do. And certainly in relation to the northern rivers region where I’m spending a considerable amount of time in the flood recovery space. Having discussions around how we do that … how do we rebuild infrastructure in a way that will be adaptable to the future and what we might experience in the space going forward? So I think discussions are ongoing and always interview to taking people safe and protecting their lives and livelihoods.
In response to a question about how communities are expected to adapt to repeated flood events such as they have experienced recently, Cooke acknowledged that they are “very weary”:
We’ve got you know, nearly 400 people presently in the ACE evacuation centres that are operating across the Sydney area. We’ve got about 150 people in emergency accommodation presently. I know you know those people are doing it really, really tough and I can understand them, you know, really questioning where they live and what future might hold if they continue to be faced with these types of circumstances on a regular basis.
Interviewer Hamish MacDonald: “Can you see why for people that are going through their fourth flood in about a year, why hearing that it’s a ‘one-in-100-year-flood’ is completely ridiculous?”
Cooke:
Yes, yes I can.
97 flood evacuation orders in place for NSW, affecting 50,000 people
The NSW minister for flood recovery, Steph Cooke, is on ABC radio this morning. She’s warning that while we’ll see some rainfall easing across Sydney today, there are still strong winds and there will be pockets of heavy rainfall:
We are encouraging people not to become complacent throughout today. We saw yesterday afternoon the situation changed very quickly … So, what we’re really saying is that if we do see a sudden downpour in a particular location people could find themselves in a bit of strife with flash flooding. And when of course we’re still working our way through those, those major flood levels out in the Hawkesbury-Nepean area, that will be a continued focus for us today.
And we are now starting to see that weather system move up into the lower parts of the Hunter district and we’re expecting isolated rainfalls between 40 and 65mm in that area, and on an already heavily saturated landscape, could have ramifications for people in that area.
Cooke says there are 97 evacuation orders in place affecting 50,000 people.
Good morning.
The flood disaster in New South Wales continues, with thousands of people evacuated from parts of greater Sydney and the surrounding areas as water levels rise and rain continues this morning. Disaster funding has been announced for 23 local government areas in Sydney and parts of NSW. The Bureau of Meteorology estimates 100mm of rain could fall in the next 24 hours across the Sydney/Newcastle region.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who returns from Europe late this afternoon where he attended the Nato summit and made diplomatic trips to Ukraine and France, is expected to visit flood-affected communities in and around Sydney later this week.
We’ll bring you all the news on the floods as it develops throughout the day.
Elsewhere, the cargo ship the Portland Bay, stranded off Royal national park south of Sydney yesterday after suffering a power failure and being cast adrift, is still stuck, with rescue efforts yesterday hampered by further bad weather. We’ll continue to bring you the latest on that.
And the Reserve Bank is meeting today, with markets and economists tipping it to raise interest rates again by 50 basis points, lifting the official cash rate from 0.85% to 1.35%.
There’ll be heaps more throughout the day so stay tuned. I’m Stephanie Convery and I’ll be your intrepid blogger this morning. As always, if you see something newsworthy that you reckon I should make note of, you can reach me by email at [email protected] or on Twitter: @gingerandhoney.
Let’s get stuck in.
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