NSW, Queensland, floods live updates: Evacuations as Sydney rivers swell, storms bring more rain to Brisbane

• For emergency assistance, contact SES in NSW or QLD on 132 500.

• If your life is at risk, call Triple Zero (000) immediately.

• For the latest weather updates visit the Bureau of Meteorology in Queensland here or in NSW here
• ABC Emergency contains planning and advice, an incident map and more
• Roads and bridges may be impacted by flash flooding. You can find more information in Queensland here
• Other emergency updates can be found at Queensland Fire and Emergency Services 
• If you're not sure what to do when there's a flood, here's the best way to plan

As the floodwaters hopefully continue to recede in most affected regions in NSW and Qld, the focus is turning to the clean up and stock take of exactly how much damage they've caused.

If you've found, or think you're going to find, yourself in a situation where you need to make an insurance claim, do you know what to do?

ABC reporter David Chen has stepped through exactly what you need to do here.

The World Science Festival has announced its cancelled its event this year because of the impacts of the floods at the Queensland Museum, Queensland Cultural Centre and across South Bank Parklands.

"And the personal impact to some of our incredible participants and staff, we're not able to to reschedule our main program of in-person events," the festival said.

"We know you share in this disappointment with us."

The good news is they're working to get a virtual program together, you can find the details on it here.

Yatala Pies owner Heather Gay has been talking to Kelly Higgins-Devine on ABC Radio Brisbane tonight and said the floodwater came up to the edge of their verandah.

But they managed to get their equipment out and perishables on a truck before the floodwater came.

“This flood here blocked the access to the M1,” she said.

“It wasn’t like Debbie – with Debbie it came down and was gone in four hours. This time it stayed around.”

Reporting by Alicia Nally

What is the definition of an essential worker for kids to go to school tomorrow? Does only 1 of their carers need to be an essential worker?

-Sunny skies so far

Hey Sunny skies so far, thanks for the question! 

The best definition I've been able to find is the one the Queensland Education Department has been using during the COVID-19 lockdowns and outbreaks.

It defines an essential worker as:

"Someone who provides essential services, and who is unable to work from home."

"This includes but is not limited to doctors, nurses and other front-line medical staff, retail workers, haulage drivers and police officers."

Hope that helps!

Energy providers in both NSW and Queensland say they're still working to restore power to tens of thousands of people in both states, after some of their own infrastructure was damaged in the floods.

In Queensland, Energex says that as at 7:30pm local time 19,459 customers were without power. 

In NSW, Essential Energy says that just over 15,000 customers still don't have power, but that it restored power to 28,000 customers over the last day.

It also posted a couple of photos of what crews are dealing with as they try to repair some of their damaged infrastructure.

My young girls were SO confused why they had to be ‘urgently’ picked up from school in a rush due to a big storm- when we had the bluest skies of all week and sunshine for the rest of the day. The look on their faces seemed to be ‘the adults have gone crazy!!’

-Emma

They aren't the only ones that've been confused today Emma! A few people have written in to say it felt like there was confusion around whether a severe storm was or wasn't going to happen today.

It turns out the big storm that hit Brisbane and the Gold Coast earlier this morning actually made the weather conditions stabilise a bit because they took the energy out of the atmosphere.

But another round of severe storms - which could see giant hail, damaging winds and flash flooding -is expected tomorrow from around late morning.

I'm definitely no meteorologist so also want to pop this tweet below from the people that know what they're talking about!

A temporary base camp has popped up in Lismore for NSW firefighters that have headed to the area to help out as the floodwaters recede.

Check out this before and after from today and, to quote the RFS themselves "what a difference a few hours (and lots of work) makes!"

The Brisbane City Council has just announced that the Mud Army 2.0 cleaning days are on hold temporarily while Queenslanders are being asked to stay at home.

It had asked volunteers to chip in with the clean up tomorrow and Saturday.

"Brisbane City Council wishes to advise that Mud Army 2.0 is temporarily on hold due to the Queensland Premier's announcement asking that we stay at home for at least 48 hours until 11am Saturday 5 March 2022," the council said.

"We hope to be able to open up more Mud Army 2.0 shifts very soon. Those that have registered to help should keep an eye on their emails for communication from Volunteering Queensland confirming next steps."

Thunderstorms are forecast for Brisbane tomorrow.

That's me for today. Georgia Hitch will keep you updated throughout the evening. Keep safe everyone and most likely catch you again tomorrow.

The SES has given the all clear for people in parts of Milperra, Warwick Farm, Georges Hall, Holsworthy and Picnic Point in Sydney's south-west to return home.

They were under evacuation orders last night.

The Bureau of Meteorology earlier cancelled severe weather warnings in Sydney, the Illawarra and the Central Tablelands.

But the SES is urging those who were evacuated but haven't been given the all clear to return to follow orders.

"The SES has to go in and make sure the area is safe before they return back to their homes," SES spokeswoman Christina Bergin said.

Tens of thousands of people in NSW and Queensland have already lodged insurance claims in the wake of the floods, but the number is expected to keep growing.

According to the Insurance Council of Australia in NSW 13,928 claims have been made.

In Qld 46,235 claims have been made.

The estimated cost of the damage so far is $900 million.

Hundreds of precious artworks housed at Lismore Regional Gallery have been damaged by the catastrophic floodwaters that engulfed the town this week.

Among the items to go under were Geoff Hannah's renowned and intricate masterwork the Hannah Cabinet and works by Margaret Olley and Max Dupain.

A campaign in 2019 raised $1 million to acquire and keep the Hannah Cabinet in Mr Hannah's hometown of Lismore.

The cabinet took six-and-a-half years to make and has 92 drawers. It was made from 34 types of timber, four rare species of shell and 17 types of precious and semi-precious stones.

Gallery director Ashleigh Ralph said they moved everything they could to the second floor, but the flood was much higher than expected and nothing was spared.

"It's sickening … there's no words to describe the feeling and the loss … we couldn't have prepared for this," she said.

Read the full story here.

There's a few new flood warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology, but none are for major flood levels.

They include a minor to moderate flood warning for the Brisbane River, the Laidley and Lockyer Creeks, and a moderate flood warning for the Bremer River and Warrill Creek.

The BoM says moderate flood levels are likely at Ipswich tonight as well.

You can go through all the details here.