NSW floods: Aerial maps and time lapses from flooding experts show scale of disaster
Shocking aerial images from flood mapping experts reveal the true scale of devastation after swollen rivers swamped thousands of properties and killed two.
A series of eerie images from flood mapping experts show the shocking scale of the disastrous NSW floods, which destroyed thousands of homes and forced residents to flee their properties.
More than $400 million in damage has been caused to properties in the state and at least 33,000 insurance claims have been made, according to technology company FloodMapp.
The company provides real-time projections of how such a disaster might unfold, via aerial mapping.
The entire coast was drenched by more than 200mm of rain with some areas soaked in up to 400mm, while flooding stretched more than 600km from Sydney to the Northern Rivers and even into southern Queensland when the storm took hold in late March.
Speaking to NCA NewsWire, CEO and founder of FloodMapp Juliette Murphy said the floods covered 532kmsq during a seven day period.
“Our models show in the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment alone, over 9,400 properties have been impacted,” she said.
She explained FloodMapp provides modelling that not only determines whether a property has been damaged but to what extent.
The company specialises in rapid real-time flood forecasting and flood inundation mapping so homes and businesses can prepare for potentially life-threatening conditions and avoid financial loss.
Time-lapse footage from FloodMapp shows just how swollen the Hawkesbury River became during the peak of the floods, which virtually swallowed Windsor and North Richmond in Sydney’s far west.
Aerial images were also able to capture the extent of the flooding, which matched FloodMapp’s real-time projections.
The shocking maps show fields and properties along the Hawkesbury River completely underwater. There are also images taken from Cooma in the state’s north and from Logan in southern Queensland, both inundated with water.
Earlier, eerie pictures taken from a helicopter revealed the sheer devastation the floods have had on families across NSW, including those in western Sydney.
What began as a heavy rain quickly spiralled into one of the state’s worst flooding events in decades, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning the event would be the worst in the area since November 1961.
Windsor, in Sydney’s northwest, was one of the worst-hit areas of the city.
Aerial shots taken in the region paint a shocking picture of destruction, with homes submerged and roads and bridges under water.
A bridge designed to be “floodproof” went almost completely under water as residents in Windsor waited anxiously to see what would be left of their town when the waters finally receded.
Two men were killed in the disaster, one in NSW and one in Queensland. Both were found in cars that had been caught in floodwaters.
