Massive damage across Hawkesbury with 25% of Hawkesbury-Nepean assessed properties uninhabitable

Premier Dominic Perrottet made a rare visit to Windsor earlier today where he announced $25m in mental health support for NSW flood victims.

He also said the flood event was not over.

“This event is not over. Even here in the Hawkesbury we still have many isolated communities. So if there is an evacuation order in place, please follow those instructions and leave. If an evacuation warning is in place, please get ready to leave.”

He added, “I know for many people in the Hawkesbury this is a worse flood event than last year. We are hearing stories of many people who were not substantially affected last time now severely impacted.

“I don’t want anyone to feel that if you live in the Hawkesbury, you’ve been in an area that hasn’t been substantially affected as up north … that doesn’t mean the government support is not going to be there. And I’m certainly going to focus here at our state level as we roll out the packages that we will ensure that it’s not based on your LGA, we will make sure if you have been affected that you’re given that support that you need to get through.”

It was also revealed that as many as 25% of flooded properties assessed so far are uninhabitable, according to Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley recovery coordinator Dean Betts, who was appointed two days ago to handle the Hawkesbury response and who also spoke at the Windsor media conference.

Mr Betts has previously been with the NSW Police Force and NSW TrainLink, and is Resilience NSW’s Metropolitan Sydney Director.

He said “close to 15,000 properties have been assessed … more than half of those – over 8000 – have been identified as having damage and we know that about 25% of all the properties are uninhabitable.

“So we’re talking about a significant number of people being displaced. We’ve got 1000 people currently in emergency accommodation.”

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