Stranded Sydney residents receive emergency supplies from police as western suburbs remain cut off by 13metre-high floods
- Supplies such as toilet paper and Coca-Cola delivered to flood-hit communities
- Torrential rain followed by rising rivers has caused 12.9m floods in Sydney’s west
- Police are delivering food and medical supplies using boats on flooded streets
Residents cut-off by 12.9 metre high floodwaters in Sydney’s west have had essential supplies delivered to them by police boats as roads are rendered impassable.
Officers delivered bulk packs of toilet paper, cartons of Coca-Cola and containers of fresh water on Wednesday.
The police and hundreds of defence personnel have been checking in on settlements along Australia’s east coast which has been hit by record flooding, as well as performing rescues and evacuations.
Police deliver fresh water to locals cut-off by 12.9m high floodwaters in North Richmond, New South Wales (pictured)
Police are seen loading toilet paper supplies delivered by Coles onto a boat intended to reach stranded locals in the Windsor region on Wednesday (pictured)
‘Marine Area Command vessels are supporting isolated Hawkesbury communities with deliveries of food, medical supplies and other essentials,’ NSW Police said.
They added they would also be patrolling waters for any illegal activity or looting of properties and they would not hesitate to prosecute offenders.
On Wednesday, the defence force launched Operation NSW Flood Assist to help emergency services with up to 700 soldiers to be deployed, including 400 from Queensland.
‘When the immediate crisis has subsided, ADF capabilities and muscle will be key in helping communities recover,’ Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said.
Toilet paper was among the essential items delivered in bulk to North Richmond residents by water police on Wednesday (pictured)
Cops can be seen with a boat loaded with Coca-Cola on its way to be delivered to locals in Western Sydney (pictured)
After days of torrential rain, large swathes of NSW are soaked and flooded with rivers such as the Hawkesbury and Nepean in Sydney expected to continue rising for days despite blue skies across much of the state on Wednesday.
The ADF said helicopters are supplementing state search and rescue capabilities, including winch recovery operations from both Bega and Nowra.
Additional aircraft are being moved from Queensland to NSW to sustain the support and civilian aircraft have been given access to the Richmond base on the outskirts of Sydney to help with evacuation of the Colo River region.
Defence Minister Senator Marise Payne said this support of RAAF Richmond personnel enabled the safe evacuation of anyone requiring immediate medical treatment, such as dialysis, over four separate flights.
She said the ADF will also help with the clean-up and restoration of essential services such as electricity and water once the flooding has passed.
Police are suing boats to traverse streets which have been plunged underwater (pictured)
Around 170 Army personnel are on 24-hours notice to assist with the recovery operation and a second support force of around 290 ADF is also being prepared to deploy.
Specialist engineers from Holsworthy barracks are also standing by.
More than 8200 ADF members participated in Operation Bushfire Assist that ended a year ago.
In the past 12 months, more than 15,000 Defence personnel in Operation COVID Assist have been deployed across Australia, peaking at nearly 3000 last September to support state and territory governments im combating the virus.
Over 1000 are still deployed, including 652 on hotel quarantine duties, around 70 supporting the rollout of the vaccine in aged care and disability settings and a further 20 providing logistics support to the federal health department.
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