Communities along Australia’s east coast have been left counting the cost of flooding, fallen trees and other storm damage as the worst of the wild weather system passes.
Emergency services responded to thousands of incidents after a “vigorous” east coast low brought heavy rain and strong winds to swathes of NSW.
The “complex and rapidly deepening” system will continue bringing rain, storms, wind and elevated seas in coming days, but had moved into the Tasman Sea and away from the mainland on Thursday.
The NSW State Emergency Service responded to 478 incidents in the 24 hours to 2.30pm on Thursday, compared with 2500 incidents a day earlier.
Deputy commissioner Debbie Platz said many emergency warnings had been downgraded as the focus shifted to cleaning up.
“As conditions continue to improve, crews are undertaking damage assessments and helping people back on their feet,” she said.
The Bureau of Meteorology predicted light showers on the hard-hit south coast on Friday, but hazardous surf conditions remain from the coastal low pressure system.
The Insurance Council of Australia said almost 2000 claims had been made as of Thursday, representing a “modest” event after a stretch of major natural disasters that left a billion-dollar damage bill.
“Once (people) are home and once they know it’s safe to be there, they should contact their insurer and let them know they intend to make a claim – even if they don’t know the full extent of the damage,” council public affairs manager Matthew Jones said.
Residents on Lord Howe Island, in the Tasman Sea east of Port Macquarie, have been warned to prepare for the storm, with waves hitting more than five metres.
Sixth-generation resident Anthony Riddle, who runs a gin distillery, said it was part of winter’s expected weather.
The roof of the police station had already blown off.
“The island’s quite resilient because you’ve got a lot of trees and part of the building code on the island here is all the houses have to be built below the tree line,” he told AAP.
“There’s no houses on the foreshore, so we won’t have any houses affected by any coastal erosion. It’s business as usual.”
More than 4000 incidents have been logged with the SES since the weather event began on Monday.
There have been 12 flood rescues across NSW, with authorities repeating calls to not drive through floodwaters.
About 2000 customers across the Endeavour Energy and Ausgrid electricity networks in NSW remained without power on Thursday afternoon.
Tens of thousands more had lost power at some point during the wild weather.
But the state won’t be in the clear yet, with a trough moving through on Sunday.
Warragamba Dam, west of Sydney, started spilling late on Wednesday, after a previous spill in May.
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