Thousands have lost their homes and have been evacuated

Yes I saw that.

Until we get to grips with the climate this will simply get worse.

That's terrible news, nanna. Are the floods receding now? Is there government help?

Our climate world wide is changing. How are things now nana8?

I did see that news. Devastating for those people in that area.

I heard, whilst driving, a programme on Radio 4 about floods in California and how the insurance companies are charging huge amounts, eg. 10,000 US dollars, to insure properties for a year. Some properties are now uninsurable. As others have said, it's down to climate change and it will get worse.

I remember that the Green Party used to campaign against building on the flood plain but of course, building continued. I wonder how many houses here are threatened in the long term? Sad.

The insurance companies have a lot to answer for because many of them refuse to cover floods. Even though they might not happen for many years. These houses were mostly not on flood plains,either. Same happens with bushfires. Some will pay out,others not. The government will help but it is limited. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-24/nsw-flooding-live-updates-weather-warnings-may-24/105331622

My son and family live in NSW but not in the area affected by these floods - they have had extremely wet weather though. It seemed odd talking to him while he was living in torrential rain conditions and we had brown grass through lack of rain!

Can't say we haven't been warned.

Can't say we haven't been warned

That’s right Cabowich.

Meanwhile Trump’s new ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ (FFS!!!) intends to row back on climate control initiatives implemented by Biden.

And here, climate crisis denier Tice refers to our net zero plans as ‘net stupid zero’.

Such adult language from two ‘grown men’!

Meanwhile, the world is burning 🔥🤬

If anything remotely like that happened in Europe it would be headline news but here we just muddle through it.

Why is that?

The floods in NSW have been headline news here nanna8.

As for ‘muddling through it’, wherever similar awful events happen across the world, the people affected have to (and do) get on with it.

I did start a thread yesterday but no-one responded, so I've asked for it to be deleted. I said:

The Hunter area and mid-North coast of New South Wales have been inundated with rainfall, resulting in flooding. I believe parts of Brisbane have also been affected. People have been rescued but four people have lost their lives.

Thinking of any Gransnetters there and anyone who has relatives who have been affected.

www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/may/23/nsw-floods-maps-flood-map-flooding-areas-zone-rainfall-interactive

LizzieDrip

The floods in NSW have been headline news here nanna8.

As for ‘muddling through it’, wherever similar awful events happen across the world, the people affected have to (and do) get on with it.

I had only heard a very brief reference to it on the news here, LizzieDrip

It's a worrying trend.

I wondered if it is an El Niño or La Niña year but apparently it's in a neutral phase.

The other real danger which I am not sure that people have fully taken on board is the sea level rise.

Most if the world biggest cities are on the coast and at real risk of drowning.

Those most at risk are New York, London, Cardiff, Bangkok, Amsterdam amongst others.

They are taking flooding seriously in the area my DD lives in south of Sydney.
They overlook a river and their house is compliant with the building regs, (It is new) with no ‘living areas’ on the ground floor.

I didn’t know that nanna8 so will now look it up, we get very little Australian news here.
Floods and terrible wildfires, Australia is very unlucky in that respect.
Devastating if you’re not well insured.

In the UK we have a system called Flood Re that helps homeowners in high-risk flood areas access affordable insurance by pooling the flood risk element of home insurance with participating insurers.

It was established in 2016 after negotiations between the government and the insurance industry. Properties built after January 1st, 2009 are generally not covered by Flood Re.

I have learnt all about this in the last few days as we are buying a house that may well be covered by it.

Perhaps Australians should lobby their insuranc eomanies and relevant politicians to establish a similar scheme.

I was looking at a photograph of floods close to where we are buying and noticed that on a new estate all the houses were effectively built on plinths with the front door and ground floor raised four or five foot above road level, so that although there was shallow flood water washing round the road and front gardens, the houses themselves were unaffected.

There are also a lot of quite simple measures you can take to make a house flood resilient, from putting non-return valves on plumbing, water resistant air bricks(the pressure of the water, closes the vent) to exterior doors and garden gates that can keep up to 2 foot of water at bay.

However in Australia, like in much of the USA, the houses are built of much lighter materials that make them more prone to be damaged by extreme weather.

I can remember seeing a house in California that survived the wild fires, when everything around it was burnt to the ground. It was built of brick and concrete and had fire resistant shutters and had been designed to resist the fire - and it worked.

It's not more than a couple of months since the terrible floods in Queensland.

I saw an article about a kangarro that had been trapped in the floodwater, but not much else. Hope the rains stop soon for you.
Weirdly, one of the newly elected Reform councils has actually banned a 'flooding committee', in an area prone to flooding.

We have plenty of flooding here in the UK on an annual basis, which can be blamed on climate change, and/or on building houses on flood plains. A combination of both probably.
We have to get on with it, it happens regularly and no doubt it isn’t reported in Australian news, why would it?
A few years ago floods were particularly bad in Germany. I have family there. A lot of people died, but it was barely mentioned here, and they are close by,

The rains have been torrential in Sydney I have heard. Their seasons are the reverse of ours so it’s their winter. We get floods here too, I remember on the news they always show Tewkesbury flooded. I’m hoping the rain subsides in NSW and they have a rescue package in place for those poor people.

woodenspoon

The rains have been torrential in Sydney I have heard. Their seasons are the reverse of ours so it’s their winter. We get floods here too, I remember on the news they always show Tewkesbury flooded. I’m hoping the rain subsides in NSW and they have a rescue package in place for those poor people.

Our family over there reported that it's barely stopped raining for months, in Queensland too. Winter in Queensland is usually the dry season.

We have to get on with it, it happens regularly

Yes, we will hae to learn to adapt but no, this is unusual and the thing is, as well as people losing their homes and even their lives, crops are lost causing food shortages. With Australia being the size it is, if food is transported from one region to another and the roads are broken up by severe flooding, then food trucks cannot get through.

I had only heard a very brief reference to it on the news here

Allira it’s been reported by BBC, Sky News, The Guardian, The Independent, Reuters & I News - probably others as well.

I did see it on BBC News, briefly, hende I started the other thread but no-one responded so I thought no-one here had seen it.
We have Australian visitors here at the moment.