Johnson Street in Byron Bay yesterday. [Source: smh]

The NSW State Emergency Service’s assistant commissioner, Nicole Hogan, has fronted ABC News Breakfast.

Ms Hogan told viewers there are 20 flood evacuation orders in place across NSW at the moment, affecting some 27,000 people.

The assistant commissioner also defended the messaging of emergency services in recent days. There is some anger among residents of northern NSW given people in Lismore were told to return to their homes earlier this week and then, just hours later, ordered to evacuate for a second time.

Ms Hogan said the initial all-clear in Lismore was a “sound decision”.

“The situation had eased from a weather perspective and predictions on Tuesday afternoon,” she said.

“There was a significant weather system that came across later that day and into that night which undertook quite some torrential rain, which caused significant flash flooding in those communities. We … then, at that stage, whilst working with communities, had to re-issue the evacuation order in that particular area.

“We were working with a system that was quite dynamic. We will continue to work with the communities in those areas that are under evacuation order and as soon as it’s safe to do so, we will lift those orders.”