Australia Weather News

NSW Police have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 60-year-old woman in floodwaters.

The woman's body was found in her vehicle in the town of Dorrigo, west of Coffs Harbour, on Thursday afternoon.

Police have previously said the woman and a police officer were driving in a convoy on Wednesday night when the pair reached floodwaters and the police officer told the woman he could not continue with his sedan.

Police said the officer gave the woman his phone number and told her not to continue through floodwaters, but the woman kept driving.

However, the woman's family claim she has been unfairly painted as "reckless", saying the police officer told her he knew a safe way through the floodwaters and guided her to a road.

NSW Police on Saturday said they were investigating.

"The investigation will examine the full circumstances surrounding the incident, the officer's interaction with the woman prior, the weather conditions at the time and the response of emergency services," a statement read.

"Detectives and an assigned family liaison officer are in contact with the family and will keep them informed throughout the investigation.

"Detectives will prepare a report for the Coroner."

At a press conference in Maitland in the Hunter region, Premier Chris Minns was asked if the family's claims were true.

Mr Minns acknowledged the family's "heartbreak" and their search for answers, but said he wasn't aware of the circumstances surrounding the incident.

"I can't speak to it … There will be a full investigation. I'm not prepared in the absence of an investigation to condemn the police or the police officer involved," he said.

"I would never want to say anything to add to their burden today. They're obviously going through a terrible, terrible time."

Floodwater warning for motorists

Residents in rain-hit parts of NSW have been told not to drive through floodwaters after a number of people had to be rescued from their vehicles.

NSW State Emergency Service (SES) Commissioner Michael Wassing said there were still 148 flood warnings across the state and that the SES had taken part in 768 flood rescues, almost all on the state's Mid North Coast.

He said most of the rescues were associated with people driving through floodwaters.

"I understand why people, now the rain has stopped, will be up and about and moving around, but you cannot drive through floodwaters," he said.

"It is taking up valuable emergency services personnel time, efforts and priorities that are needed elsewhere."

Mr Wassing said driving through floodwater was a "key life risk".

The commissioner said between 8,000 and 10,000 properties had been impacted by the flood events.

He said the clean-up was not an operation that would take just a few days.

"We are conscious that many of the community members are still in evacuation centres here today," he said.

"They are tired and they want to get home. We get that, and we will work with them to keep them informed of when the right time is to do that and support them in terms of the clean-up operations and … whether it is financial or [where] we are conscious of the long haul in terms of mental health impacts."

Jenny Aitchison, minister for transport and roads, and member for Maitland, said that a single lane in either direction of the M1 would reopen from 6pm this evening.

"The amount of garbage and debris that is on the roadway from the floods is extensive," she said.

"Transport crews have been working relentlessly to try and clean it up, but they'll only be able to open one lane and there will be removal happening in that other lane."

She urged motorists to comply with the restriction during the clean up.

From today, SES crews will begin assessing the damage in areas where floodwaters have started to recede, in a process they describe as vital to the collection of "lifesaving information" to better understand flood behaviour.

First to be assessed are the areas of Dungog, Bulahdelah, Laurieton, Bowraville, Nambucca, Kendall, Gloucester and Millers Forest, with crews in Kempsey, Newcastle, Port Macquarie and Taree’s surrounds in coming days.

Thousands of people are without power and tens of thousands remain isolated and are receiving assistance from various agencies including the Rural Fire Service and PolAir.

Minister for Emergency Services Jihad Dib said that last night new technology, including drones, was used for the first time to drop off urgent medicine to a home cut off by floodwaters.

He said that fodder drop offs for livestock was also taking place.

Access to hardship grants, however, are still a few days away, with the premier lamenting that the process wasn't that "straightforward to have it up and running". 

"When you've got such a large number of people that are accessing this payment, we want it to be seamless.

"And we want to make sure that only those who are eligible for the payment can get it. That takes a few days ... It won't be long, but it's not today."

Sunny skies but flood warnings remain

Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) senior meteorologist Gabrielle Woodhouse said despite sunny skies, a series of flood warnings remained in place, including for major flooding at Bulga on the Wollombi Brook.

She said while NSW would see generally dry conditions across the weekend, a cold front would bring "very windy conditions" across the state on Monday and Tuesday, particularly in coastal areas.

"We are expecting some of those flood levels to slowly recede through the course of the weekend and into early next week but those flood warnings remain current," she said.

1,600 insurance claims lodged

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has already received 1,600 claims from the flood event.

ICA CEO Andrew Hall said a lot more would land with insurers over the weekend and in the weeks to come.

"We have had up to 50,000 people over the past few days evacuated from their properties, unable to return to their properties," he said.

"As the water recedes, people get back to their homes and find they have had some damage and they need to lodge a claim."