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“She was in quite a bit of shock, mild hypothermia,” Smith said.
“You could tell it was a situation that had shaken [her] and caused her some distress.”
NSW SES Deputy Commissioner Damien Johnston, NSW Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience and Minister for Flood Recovery Steph Cooke, and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet during a weather and flood update on Thursday. Credit:NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short
In another rescue in Bulga, in the Hunter region, a 10-month-old boy who was struggling to breathe was rescued by two NSW lifesavers who used an inflatable dinghy to reach the infant on Wednesday afternoon.
A Rural Fire Service (RFS) member, trained as a community first responder by NSW Ambulance, managed to reach the 10-month-old before handing him and his mother over to two members of Surf Life Saving NSW, Lee Archer and Shane Dowsett.
The pair used the dinghy – used to pluck people from hazardous surf – to ferry the baby and his mother to safety, battling flood currents to bring the boy to paramedics waiting near the flooded Bulga bridge.
Recovery effort begins for devastated communities
For many residents and businesses, the recovery effort has only just started. But many will be aided by a multi-agency taskforce that will be deployed across the Greater Sydney and Illawarra district that will include personnel from the NSW State Emergency Service, RFS and ADF.
Low-lying parts of Singleton are inundated by floodwaters along the Hunter River. Credit:Brook Mitchell
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet spent Thursday morning in Camden, surveying the damage with Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke and NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner Paul Baxter.
The trio also walked through Enzos Restaurant, which had been wiped out for the fourth time this year by floodwaters. Staff have been working since Monday to clean the restaurant in a bid to reopen on Friday.
“Our emergency service personnel and volunteers are doing an outstanding job dealing with the flooding, but it is also vital we get boots on the ground to begin the recovery process,” Perrottet said.
“We are focused on making sure affected residents and businesses are safe and have everything they need to recover as soon as possible.”
Weatherzone meteorologist Andrew Schmidt said that, while showers lingered into Thursday morning in the Central Coast and Mid North Coast regions, they cleared up during the day as the worst of the east coast low moves off the coast.
“It is pretty much all over; breathe a sigh of relief,” he said.
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Schmidt added that, while there was a possibility of more rain over the Sydney region on Sunday, the rest of the week was looking clear.
Caution urged for those returning home
Cooke has urged flood victims to be vigilant when returning to their homes as people try to dry out their homes amid eased weather conditions.
She said it had been a miracle no lives had been lost so far throughout the current flood event, but was concerned there was a fire risk as people rush to dry out their homes.
“Through the start of this winter season, we have already seen five deaths through house fires which is more than we saw for all of winter in 2021. We want to avoid any tragedy on top of the heartache that we have already experienced over the past week,” she said.
Cooke asked residents to take care when using appliances in the home and to keep clothes at least a metre away from heaters. She also asked flood victims not to use outdoor heating equipment and outdoor cooking equipment inside, which could present carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide risks.
“We certainly don’t want to see people’s lives put at risk through these activities,” she said.
With AAP
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