Sydney’s wet and windy weather is expected to ease as the vast majority of displaced people in flood-affected communities return to their homes to survey the damage.
The State Emergency Services says 7200 waterlogged homes have been assessed so far, with almost 750 deemed uninhabitable.
The lower Hawkesbury area remains flooded and the SES is still ferrying supplies to isolated communities around Wisemans Ferry.
The SES responded to 350 calls for help overnight and performed 13 flood rescues.
Almost 500 people have been rescued and more than 9150 calls have been made to the SES since the floods began two weeks ago.
Showers are forecast for Sydney on Monday before clearing later in the week, although surf conditions are tipped to remain dangerous.
With the rain clearing, the focus has once again shifted to the issue of raising of the Warragamba Dam wall.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the business case was strong but environmental and funding obstacles needed to be considered.
“It’s a major engineering feat to raise a wall like that, but the advice we have in terms of the benefits of doing that to those communities downstream is significant,” he told Nova radio on Monday.
“There’s substantial planning issues, environmental issues because when the water builds up on the wall it then floods the national park”.
“We’ve put something to the federal government on a 50/50 funding arrangement.
“This project will cost billions of dollars but we’re committed to it.
“We’ve done the work, it’s with the federal government (and) hopefully we can get it over line.”
But Opposition Leader Chris Minns was unconvinced it was “a catch-all solution” to mitigating future flood disasters.
“We need to look closely at lowering the maximum capacity of water in Warragamba Dam,” he told 2GB.
“That’s a more affordable and cheaper way of delivering the same outcome”.
He suggested flood levees for small and moderate floods would provide some measure of protection for communities that have to deal with the increasing risk of flooding in the coming decades.
He also endorsed a voluntary acquisition scheme funded jointly by local, state and federal governments for people living on flood plains.
“As a result people could opt in and therefore move to higher ground or safer ground,” Mr Minns said, referring to the suburb of Milperra in southwest Sydney as a successful model.
He criticised the NSW government’s proposal to double the population around flood plains, saying it would make a “dangerous situation far worse”.
Federal Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt said on Monday the government would unlock a $4.8 billion emergency response fund to get more cash out for long-term flood mitigation projects.
As the clean-up effort gets underway, residents of 29 local government areas are now eligible for relief payments of up to $1000.
The federal government says $340 million has been delivered so far.
Payments of $1000 per eligible adult and $400 per eligible child are available to people impacted by the flooding.
About 105,000 people can return home but have been warned to emotionally prepare for what they will find, and to reach out for help from neighbours.
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