Lismore residents have once again been ordered to evacuate their homes overnight, just hours after being given the all clear to return.
An evacuation order was reissued at 12.30am on Wednesday for residents of the CBD, Lismore Basin and low-lying areas of East Lismore and Girards Hill.
NSW SES Assistant Commissioner Nicole Hogan told ABC News that intense rainfall fell overnight in Lismore’s CBD and across the coastal fringe of the Northern Rivers, leading to flash flooding.
The Bureau of Meteorology has revised its flood warning with fears that the Lismore levee will exceed its maximum level of 10.6m before 9am.
“I’m standing at the levee wall right now because we are about half a metre away from overtopping the levee and flooding our town for the second time of the month,” Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg told Sunrise.
“When it gets to 10.6, we are buggered here.”
Emergency services ordered residents to evacuate the same areas by 4pm on Tuesday.
By 6pm, residents of the CBD and low-lying parts of Billinudgel and Mullumbimby were allowed to return home with caution after rivers fell below minor flood levels.
NSW SES is advising residents in the following locations to evacuate due to rising floodwaters: Tumbulgum, Tygalgah, Murwillumbah, Condong and low-lying parts of Kyogle.
Residents are advised to stay with friends or family or head to the evacuation centre at Southern Cross University in Lismore.
“We’re likely to see more evacuation warnings for communities out this morning in some of the Northern Rivers districts,” Ms Hogan said.
Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader spoke with 2GB on Wednesday morning about the evolving situation in Byron Bay and Ballina.
“It’s really not safe for people to go out,” Ms Cadwallader said.
“Our localised flooding is not coming fromxjmtzyw the levees overtopping, it’s coming from what’s falling from the sky, the rain bombs and the heavy wind gusts.”
Byron Mayor Michael Lyon followed on 2GB to say: “People are waking up who have had to sleep in their cars or vans in two feet of water. It’s just devastating.
“We’ve been following it all night. It’s devastating after what we’ve just been through a month ago. It’s hitting different parts of the shire.”
Richmond federal member Justine Elliot also provided an update from Sydney where she is desperately making arrangements to get back to her electorate.
“As of 5.30am there have been there no more SES warnings for northern NSW, other than Lismore,” she said.
Ms Elliot is calling on local disaster authorities to urgently open evacuation centres in Byron Bay and Ballina.
