{"id":32795,"date":"2025-05-21T16:57:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T16:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=32795"},"modified":"2025-05-21T16:57:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T16:57:50","slug":"disaster-support-for-sixteen-hunter-and-mid-north-coast-lgas-following-severe-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/disaster-support-for-sixteen-hunter-and-mid-north-coast-lgas-following-severe-flooding\/","title":{"rendered":"Disaster support for sixteen Hunter and Mid North Coast LGAs following severe flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Albanese and Minns Governments have activated disaster assistance to communities in 16 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the Hunter and Mid North Coast following severe weather, including heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NSW Government\u2019s Natural Disaster Declaration applies to the LGAs of: Bellingen, Central Coast, Cessnock, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Dungog, Kempsey, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, MidCoast, Nambucca, Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Port Stephens, Singleton and Upper Hunter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Support has been made available under the joint Commonwealth-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Assistance measures that may be provided to communities include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Assistance for eligible residents to help meet immediate needs like emergency accommodation and essential items generally provided from evacuation or recovery centres.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grants for low-income, uninsured residents to replace lost essential household items to maintain basic standard of living.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grants for low-income, uninsured residents to undertake essential structural repairs to restore their homes to a basic, safe and habitable condition.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Support for affected local councils to help with the costs of cleaning up and restoring damaged essential public assets.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Concessional interest rate loans for small businesses, primary producers, and non-profit organisations and grants to sporting and recreation clubs to repair or replace damaged or destroyed property.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Freight subsidies for primary producers to help transport livestock and fodder.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Financial support towards counter disaster activity undertaken by emergency service organisations to keep communities safe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Federal Minister for Emergency Management Kristy McBain said the Albanese Government is working closely with the Minns Government to ensure support is available for Hunter and Mid North Coast communities impacted by flooding.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese floods and severe weather are having a huge impact on communities across the Hunter and Mid North Coast, which is why we\u2019re working with the Minns Government to activate this support,\u201d Minister McBain said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFrom emergency accommodation, to support for small businesses and councils to repair damages \u2013 we\u2019re ensuring support is available during this event and as communities turn their focus to recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese conditions are expected to continue into the week, so it\u2019s really important that people are aware of the flood risk in their area by keeping up to date with the warnings and that they listen to the advice of emergency services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NSW Minister for Recovery Janelle Saffin said the NSW Government is activating a range of basic support to assist flood impacted communities and councils&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe know this is a challenging time for people in many parts of NSW, and we are rolling out these support measures so communities can begin the clean-up and recovery process as soon as possible,\u201d Minister Saffin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are still in the response phase but the NSW Reconstruction Authority is working closely with the State Emergency Service and partner agencies to ensure a smooth transition to recovery and the delivery of targeted support for our affected communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Government and the Reconstruction Authority will continue to work closely with local councils and communities to ensure they can get essential support and activate further assistance if it is required.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More information on disaster assistance can be found at<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsw.gov.au\/emergency\/recovery\">https:\/\/www.nsw.gov.au\/emergency\/recovery<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.disasterassist.gov.au\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.disasterassist.gov.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Albanese and Minns Governments have activated disaster assistance to communities in 16 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the Hunter and Mid North Coast following severe weather, including heavy rainfall. The NSW Government\u2019s Natural Disaster Declaration applies to the LGAs of: Bellingen, Central Coast, Cessnock, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Dungog, Kempsey, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, MidCoast, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/05\/21\/disaster-support-for-sixteen-hunter-and-mid-north-coast-lgas-following-severe-flooding\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Disaster support for sixteen Hunter and Mid North Coast LGAs following severe flooding&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32796,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32795\/revisions\/32796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}