Hundreds of schools were closed on Monday, although some public transport services have resumed in flood-affected areas.
In Queensland, where parts of Brisbane and the Gold Coast experienced intense and heavy rain early on Monday, flash flooding and shelter-in-place emergency warnings continued for many residents.
More than 211,000 homes across South East Queensland were still without power, according to distributor Energex.
There was some positive news when Queensland police announced that an 18-year-old boy feared missing in floodwater in Logan, south of Brisbane, had been found safe and well.
In NSW, SES Deputy Commissioner Damien Johnston pleaded with people not to drive into floodwaters, saying another 18 flood rescues had been undertaken over the past 24 hours. A man who died after being swept into floodwaters in northern NSW on Friday was identified as 61-year-old Tom Cook.
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Meanwhile, 13 people injured in a crash involving two Australian Defence Force vehicles near Lismore are expected to make full recoveries. All but one ADF member has been released from hospital, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Monday.
A $15 million recovery fund is already available to NSW councils and their communities, and Chris Minns said he expected the government would announce support packages for some flood victims once the scale of the damage was clearer.
“We will speak a bit later today about grants. We are working with the Commonwealth government and the Queensland government about what we will roll out as it relates to emergency grants for affected communities.”
Minns said the state government would begin closing evacuation centres as necessary, insisting emergency shelters could not be used to alleviate long-term homelessness problems in the Northern Rivers, which has some of the highest rates of homelessness in the country.
A man was charged over an alleged assault at an evacuation centre in Mullumbimby on Sunday.
Premier Chris Minns provides an update on the response effort to ex-tropical cyclone Alfred from the SES headquarters in Sydney.Credit: Steven Siewert
As thoughts turn to recovery, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised the decision by local councils in both states to shut down early in preparation for Cyclone Alfred despite it being less severe than originally predicted.
“I think the precautionary principle kicks in here and the preparedness that was done, I’m not going to criticise any council,” Albanese said on Nine’s Today program. Individual disaster payments, $1000 for adults and $400 for children, will be available to those most in need.
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Jenny McAllister, the federal minister for emergency management, warned the recovery period would be lengthy and called on the insurance sector to “look out for their customers”.
“We know that recovery will be long when we have events at this scale … we start with what people need, but we move quickly to clean up and trying to repair [the] damage, and the insurance sector is part of that.”
“We want them to play a constructive role, and we expect that they will.”
With Olivia Ireland and Nick O’Malley.
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