SYDNEY - Thousands of people in northern NSW isolated by floods will remain cut off for up to a week, despite an easing of the flood threat.
State Emergency Service spokesman Phil Campbell said the focus of operations was now to supply essentials to those who were isolated
and be ready to evacuate anyone in a medical emergency.
"The threat in terms of rising floodwaters has eased," he said.
"The greater concern for us is the ongoing isolation of those several thousand people who will remain isolated, in some instances for up to week."
Campbell said 1500 people in the town of Coraki would be isolated probably until tomorrow. More than 200 people on rural homesteads downstream, between Coraki and Woodburn, would be cut off for up to a week, he said.
The Woodburn township will not be isolated by the floodwaters, however 160 people have been evacuated from the nearby Aboriginal community at Cabbage Tree Island, on the Richmond River.
Campbell said 50 people from the island were being accommodated at an emergency shelter in Ballina while others were staying with family and friends.
As the floodwaters headed towards the coast at Ballina, about 500 more people would be isolated on rural properties between Woodburn and Ballina, he said.
Further inland, 40km from Tenterfield at Boonoo Boonoo, the number of techno music fans stranded by floods at the four-day Freakreation Festival has been revised up to 1000 from the earlier count of 700, he said.
The festival was due to end yesterday but those people will be isolated probably until today after the washout of a bridge to the island site on Saturday.
"They have sufficient supplies," Campbell said.
"They still have their music going and are still having a good time. They are just having a slightly longer festival than planned."
- AAP
