Parts of the northern rivers and far northern New South Wales have been declared a natural disaster area after heavy rain and flooding.
The floods are being called the worst to hit the region in more than 50 years.
NSW Emergency Services Minister Nathan Rees made the announcement at Banora Point during an inspection tour of the region today.
Mr Rees says it is a serious situation.
"We’ve seen the prospect of severe flooding in places like Coraki in the next 24 hours and river heights of up to 16 metres in some locations and 120 people evacuated in some towns," he said.
"The sitaution’s serious and on the basis of the advice from the SES … I’m declaring a natural disaster area for the Tweed Shire of New South Wales and also for Kyogle.
"We’ll be keeping a close eye on the Richmond Valley Shire."
About 150 people were evacuated from low-lying areas on the Tweed Coast and Kyogle early this morning.
The Kyogle mayor, Ernie Bennett, says the Bruxner Highway has been severely damaged.
"As you walked along the bitumen surface you could actually jump up and down six inches on it," he said.
"The water under that subsurface is going to destroy that road and it doesn’t take very much of a highway to chew up a million dolars when you have to replace it."