Body found in flood search for Sydney man

Jack Gramenz and Phoebe Loomes | March 9, 2022

Police have found the body of a delivery driver whose truck was found submerged in Sydney floodwaters, as the prime minister declared the NSW disaster a “major catastrophe”.

An Isuzu Pantech was found at Greendale about 9pm on Tuesday by the truck’s owner, who told police the driver missed a delivery at 6am.

Police confirmed a body had been found in floodwaters and is believed to be the missing driver, however he is yet to be formally identified.

The driver has been named as Xianbin Liu, 50, from Beverly Hills.

The death toll from the state’s flood crisis is nine, with the latest fatality coming after the bodies of a man and a woman were found in a western Sydney stormwater canal on Tuesday.

Touring the Northern Rivers region on Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the disaster as major catastrophe, more severe than previous flood events Lismore residents have experienced and prepared for.

He heard stories that “broke (him) up”.

“You have to see it, you have to smell it, you have to feel it,” Mr Morrison said.

He used the trip to announce he would ask Governor-General David Hurley to approve the declaration of a national emergency in NSW and Queensland.

Lismore councillor Elly Bird said that declaration would hopefully escalate the cleanup, but funding was also needed to support non-government organisations that were already mobilising the recovery and support in the community.

“We’re going to be in this for many years to come, we need significant community funding to flow,” she told AAP.

Ms Bird said structural engineers are also urgently needed in the area to assess the safety of thousands of flooded buildings.

With hundreds in temporary accommodation, the temptation to return to a flooded home is high.

“Because the need is so urgent people are going back into those houses … we need to make those people safe,” Cr Bird said.

She said the area also needs more temporary accommodation so people are not moved far from their homes and recovery centres where they can access support.

Sydney has had its wettest-ever start to a year after being drenched with average rainfall totals close to what is usually reported in 12 months.

Since January 1, 872mm of rain has fallen in Sydney, the highest tally since records began, eclipsing a previous record of 815.8mm in 1956.

Major flooding is continuing, with a number of areas seeing levels worse than in March 2021.

Flood levels are predicted to slowly recede in the coming days as rain eases.

Residents in most parts of Camden and 11 suburbs on the Georges River in southwest Sydney were told they can return with caution to areas previously under evacuation orders.

Up to 3139 ADF personnel are expected on the ground by the end of Wednesday, the majority of them in the flood hit Northern Rivers.

Six flood recovery centres have opened on the Northern Rivers, housing multiple government agencies where residents can get support and access to recovery funding.

The recovery centres are operating at Ballina, Casino, Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby, Kyogle and Lismore.

Grants of $1 million have been extended to declared disaster zones in an additional 28 local government areas, with some 45 councils receiving grants to cover operational costs and restore damaged infrastructure.

NSW small businesses and not-for-profits can apply for up to $50,000 in government support to cover the cost of cleanup and repairs or to restock and reopen.

The federal and NSW governments will fund a “bespoke business support package” for northern NSW farmer’s co-op Norco and will work with councils to identify other businesses “critical to the future of the Northern Rivers economy”, Mr Morrison said.