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Speaker 1: Jump Mission with Jonesy and Amanda.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 3: Almost half a million people across Greater Sydney are under

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Speaker 3: evacuation orders, many of these in our western suburbs. We

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Speaker 3: thought we talked to the Minister for Western Sydney. He's

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Speaker 3: also the Deputy Premier, Stuart Airs. Hello, Stuart, good morning,

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Speaker 3: Good morning guys. Well what a day. What's it like

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Speaker 3: being at the forefront of the people of Western Sydney

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Speaker 3: on a day like this.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's wet, Amanda, it's very wet. There's lots of

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Speaker 2: rain and our communities, particularly those who live in low

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Speaker 2: lying areas close to river systems, will be going through

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Speaker 2: some very difficult days and hours, particularly if we continue

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Speaker 2: to see further rain. We're seeing lots of water make

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Speaker 2: its way into our river systems, the Hawkesbury Nepean River systems,

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Speaker 2: for the areas of Penrith, Richmond, windsor pit Town. That's

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Speaker 2: where the highest risk is. But we are seeing some

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Speaker 2: of the locations that people don't always associate with flooding.

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Speaker 2: Cloces in and around More Bank and Picnic Point along

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Speaker 2: the Georges River are also seeing extra water in those

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Speaker 2: river systems. It's just putting a lot of pressure on community.

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Speaker 1: Because at all bottlenecks around there, doesn't it in the

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Speaker 1: Roan Colo, and then further all those river systems that

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Speaker 1: meet up like Colo, and then you've got the Georgia's River.

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Speaker 1: So all that water that inundates it all just suddenly

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Speaker 1: turns a little big floodplain.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's right, jon Es. So what happens is

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Speaker 2: the water falls and it feeds down river systems and creeks,

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Speaker 2: particularly a lot of those creeks make their way into

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Speaker 2: the war of Gamba River and that feeds into the

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Speaker 2: Waa Gamba Dam, which is our deep water storage. When

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Speaker 2: that is full, we have no capacity to hold that

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Speaker 2: water back, so we just have to let all the

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Speaker 2: water that makes its way into the river systems straight

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Speaker 2: out the floodgates through the river, down in the Beane

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Speaker 2: River and down to Hawk Spry. And when you get

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Speaker 2: the weather pattern that we've got at the moment, the

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Speaker 2: east coast lies, that means we've got higher tides off

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Speaker 2: the coast, so that actually holds the water in the

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Speaker 2: river and that water chokes up, particularly a place called

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Speaker 2: Sackville up in the northwest of Sydney, and that doesn't

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Speaker 2: allow any water out through the Hawks free out to

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Speaker 2: the ocean, and that's what allows the water to spill

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Speaker 2: back very quickly, and that's why places like Richmond and

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Speaker 2: Windsor can see very high floods in excess of fourteen meters.

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Speaker 2: We've seen floods in this part of the world that

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Speaker 2: get as high as eighteen meters and really that's a

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Speaker 2: deep flood, very dangerous flood.

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Speaker 1: And you've been vaguel about raising the damn wall. Sorry

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Speaker 1: for my language, but warrigamber dam So we're looking at

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Speaker 1: fourteen meters and you said in the newspaper today there

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Speaker 1: will be no impact none.

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Speaker 2: No raising Oregamba dam wall gives us a lot more

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Speaker 2: residient in our community. You can't stop floods in the Hawksprinipean.

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Speaker 2: What you can do is minimize the impact on the

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Speaker 2: communities that live in low lying areas. And a lot

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Speaker 2: of these are historical communities. Townships like Richmond and Windsor

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Speaker 2: have been in their locations for almost two hundred years.

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Speaker 2: We're not going to pick up these entire communities and

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Speaker 2: relocate them out of flood zones. They're going to have

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Speaker 2: to live alongside flood So it's about how we make

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Speaker 2: them more resilient and raising more again. But dan wall

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Speaker 2: will do two things. It'll hold more water back for

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Speaker 2: a longer period of time, which will mean that some

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Speaker 2: areas that would be inundated in a flood event like

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Speaker 2: we're experiencing now would not be inundated. And for locations

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Speaker 2: that are in low lying areas where inundation is inevitable,

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Speaker 2: it provides us a lot more time to evacuate people.

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Speaker 2: So we reduce the risk to loss of life, and

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Speaker 2: that should be a priority for government, reducing the risk

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Speaker 2: to communities and providing them with infrastructure that makes them

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Speaker 2: more resilient.

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Speaker 1: We had a call from one of our people on

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Speaker 1: the pub test and they raised an interesting thing, why

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Speaker 1: don't they keep the dam at ninety percent and then

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Speaker 1: rely more on the desalination plant which lies dormant in

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Speaker 1: times like these.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really good question, Jaronesy. But the simple

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Speaker 2: fact of the matter is there's so much water that

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Speaker 2: actually flows into the dam. Last year, to give you

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Speaker 2: the best example, we went from having the dam at

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Speaker 2: almost forty percent, it nearly got below forty percent, and

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Speaker 2: it went from forty percent to ninety percent in three days.

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Speaker 2: And then a day later it was spilling. So literally

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Speaker 2: we went like from ten percent would be gone in

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Speaker 2: like a matter of hours in the current arrangement. So

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Speaker 2: to have any meaningful flood mitigation, we'd have to reduce

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Speaker 2: Sydney's drinking water supply to lower than forty percent, and

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Speaker 2: no one's really going to do that.

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Speaker 3: Well, looking at today, as you say, things happen really quickly,

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Speaker 3: what's the number one message for people? And are our

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Speaker 3: evacuation centers going to be enough?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So the main message, Amanda, is to be prepared.

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Speaker 2: We're coming out of a period of time where drought

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Speaker 2: dominated and so therefore the natural disaster that we got

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Speaker 2: all familiar with with bushfires, and people who live in

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Speaker 2: bushfire I impacted or bush fire prome communities had a

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Speaker 2: bush fire plan. They knew when to talk to their family,

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Speaker 2: they knew what they would pack up in the car

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Speaker 2: if they have to evacuate, they knew where they would go.

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Speaker 2: A lot of people haven't experienced floods, particularly as adults,

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Speaker 2: until last year, because the last significant flight we had

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Speaker 2: in this community was nineteen ninety, So unless you're fifty,

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Speaker 2: you haven't actually had a flood experience as an adult

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Speaker 2: in your entire life. That's going to change the way

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Speaker 2: people respond. So be prepared. Have the conversation with your family.

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Speaker 2: Know where your flight evacuation roots are. If you're staying

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Speaker 2: with a family member or a friend, know how to

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Speaker 2: get there. If you need to access an evacuation center,

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Speaker 2: jump on the SS website. Know where you're going. Make

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Speaker 2: sure you collect important documents, what your insurance documents. If

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Speaker 2: you've got pets, make sure you've got a plan for

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Speaker 2: what to do with them as well. Preparation is the key.

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Speaker 2: You're hearing a lot from the SS about evacuation warnings.

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Speaker 2: That's about getting prepared because the evacuate order, the actual

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Speaker 2: order to leave your home, might come at really short notice.

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Speaker 2: So the ses to get out very early with their

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Speaker 2: warnings so people can be prepared, so you can get

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Speaker 2: your own orders and your own affairs sorted out, so

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Speaker 2: when that order comes to evacuate, you're ready to go.

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Speaker 1: You've got to have it all. You've got your bush

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Speaker 1: fire plan, you got your pandemic plan. Now you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have your flood plan.

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Speaker 3: It's exhausting, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: That's the world we're living in. Jonesy so I know

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Speaker 2: we have to ask everyone to be a little bit

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Speaker 2: boy scoutish, but it's to be prepared.

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Speaker 1: I saw a picture in the newspaper there was a

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Speaker 1: house in a flood and it was on fire, and

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Speaker 1: I said, well, these are the times that we're living in.

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Speaker 2: As the biblic I just hope people in that house

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Speaker 2: got vaccinated.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. Thank you.

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Speaker 2: We got We've got to keep it a little bit

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Speaker 2: of here.

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Speaker 1: We've got it. Absolutely. That's what got this country through

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Speaker 1: Western Sydney Minister's Stewardess, thank you for joining us.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much. Thanks Jonesy and Amanda's Nation