Extra flood rescue boats won't be stationed in the Northern Rivers town of Lismore ahead of a likely third consecutive wet summer despite devastating floods earlier this year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Instead boats will be dispatched from other parts of the state as needed, the State Emergency Service says.
"We have the boats available. There aren't any extra up there (in Lismore) but we're continuing to roll out our replacement program for fleet and vessels," Commissioner Carlene York told a budget estimates hearing on Friday.
"It's important to note that the weather conditions are quite different than what we had in the February-March floods."
During the floods, a low pressure system blanketed much of eastern NSW and Queensland, the commissioner said.
The extreme weather in the Northern Rivers and Hawkesbury-Nepean regions killed 13 people, and destroyed more than a thousand homes.
"We were particularly stretched during the February-March floods that we had to maintain resources in a lot of places across NSW," Ms York said.
New systems, created after the February-March floods, were implemented during flooding in July.
These included getting three to five days of early briefings from the Bureau of Meteorology, and liaising with other emergency agencies.
"We have resources available to go, we're looking at the resources available across the state," Ms York said.
"We can relocate fleets and vessels much easier than we could in the February-March floods."
Ms York said the SES had also invested in six Unimog emergency vehicles - large semi-amphibious trucks that can drive into water up to 1.2m deep.
One Unimog is based at Lismore and was used during flooding in July.
Flood Recovery Minister Steph Cooke stressed the government had made a record investment of $4.2 billion in emergency services in the 2022-23 budget.
This included a spend of $132.7 million for the NSW SES, including $40m for capital expenditure.
The state's two fire services received a combined $1.9b.
Since the February-March flooding about 3500 people have signed up to volunteer for the SES, including more than 400 in the Northern Rivers.
Some 240 of those are trained and job ready, Ms York said.
Australia will probably experience a third consecutive La Nina year in 2022, based on weather bureau predictions.
La Nina leads to cooler but wetter weather, with above-average rainfall in Australia's east and north, and has been the driver of Australia's recent bout of devastating floods.
Australian Associated Press
