The
Sydney Morning Herald,
20 October 2022:
Holidaymakers
heading into regional NSW over the next few months have been told to
brace themselves for longer journeys on more dangerous roads after a
year of record rain and flooding.
The
severe weather has caused billions of dollars in damage to local
roads across the state, bringing regional councils to “their knees”
as they struggle with repairs, and heaping pressure on the state
government to intervene…..
NRMA
spokesman Peter Khoury said the damage to roads across the state
posed a safety risk heading into the summer and councils needed more
state and federal funding to ensure their roads were safe after the
rain.
“The
roads are not great, they are littered with potholes and are severely
damaged, but also roadworks will be taking place, which means people
will need to slow down for those as well,” he said.
“There
are safety risks when it comes to roads that are so badly damaged. It
is easier to lose control, especially on high-speed roads.
“It’s
going to be a challenging period and it’s not going to get better
until the rain stops.”
The
NRMA roadside assistance team was receiving almost twice as many
call-outs for tyre and wheel damage in NSW compared with last year.
NSW
Farmers fears the state of regional roads will impede the harvest of
this year’s winter crops, due to start in NSW in the next few
weeks, because heavy vehicles and machinery will struggle to get to
farms and then get the crops to market…...
Local
Government NSW said some councils were now spending up to 90 per cent
of their capital works budgets on road repairs and this year’s rain
had caused $2.5-$3 billion worth of damage to local roads.
It
reiterated its call for the state government to act on its 2019
election promise and take over 15,000 kilometres of country roads
owned and repaired by councils.
A
spokesman said the government’s failure to do so had “heaped more
pain on many regional and rural councils, who are financially on
their knees due to rising repair costs”.
Almost
80 councils have identified 500 roads they want the state government
to reclassify or take over. So far, the government has said it will
take on five roads – totalling 391 kilometres – identified in a
priority audit, but the transfer of ownership will take time. An
independent panel is reviewing the remaining nominations……
The
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) expects this current bout of rain to
continue falling over the Northern Rivers region at least until
Thursday 27 October.
BOM
advice
as of 19 October 2022 was:
Significant
rain and thunderstorms are continuing to spread across eastern and
south-eastern Australia and will continue into next week.
Rain
and thunderstorms with heavy falls over South Australia and
Queensland are due to spread into northern and western New South
Wales towards the South Australian and New South Wales border on
Wednesday night.
Severe
thunderstorms are also likely across Queensland and northern New
South Wales, with heavy rainfall leading to flash flooding, damaging
winds and large hail. Heavy falls across inland South Australia could
also lead to flash flooding.
Thursday
will see widespread thunderstorms across eastern Queensland, New
South Wales, northern Victoria, and far eastern parts of South
Australia, with isolated heavy falls.
Inland
Queensland and New South Wales are also likely to see some severe
thunderstorms with heavy rain, damaging winds and large hail, with
giant hail also possible.
Further
rainfall in coming days for southern inland Queensland, on and west
of the ranges in New South Wales and northern Victoria is likely to
lead to widespread moderate to major flooding impacting already flood
affected communities.
On
Friday and leading into Saturday widespread showers and thunderstorms
will continue for eastern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and
Tasmania, as humid and unstable conditions persist across eastern and
south-eastern Australia.
Severe
thunderstorms are likely across eastern Queensland, New South Wales,
and parts of Victoria, bringing more large hail, damaging winds, and
heavy rainfall.
Severe
thunderstorms are likely across eastern Queensland, New South Wales,
and parts of Victoria, bringing more large hail, damaging winds, and
heavy rainfall.
Widespread
rainfall totals of 25 to 50 mm are likely across South Australia,
Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria this week and into the
weekend, with 50 to 100 mm falls possible in southern inland
Queensland, on and west of the ranges in New South Wales.
This
rain and storm activity will lead to renewed river level rises and
widespread moderate to major flooding across southern Queensland,
inland New South Wales, and possibly northern Victoria…...
For
all the latest warnings see National
Warnings Summary.
8-DAY
TOTAL RAIN FORECAST
Australian
Bureau of Meteorology, rain map, issued 7:43am AED Thursday 20 October 2022