The financial cost of last week's wild weather across coastal New South Wales has already exceeded $200 million.

The Insurance Council of Australia says insurers have received 18,000 claims, with the majority coming from the Hunter and Central Coast regions, which are facing a flood disaster.  The cost is expected to increase as more policy holders contact their insurers over the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, 70 Queensland State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers will leave Brisbane tonight to help with emergency repairs and the clean-up operation on the Central Coast.

The volunteers, mainly from south-east Queensland, have attended a debriefing by the head of Emergency Management Queensland.  Volunteer Meg Rudder says she helped clean-up after Cyclone Larry devastated parts of far north Queensland last year and she knows it will be hard work.  The initial deployment is for four days but SES officials say that could be extended.

SES deputy director Bruce Grady says while the worst is over and the flood waters are subsiding, the Queensland team will have a lot of work to do.  "The main activities they'll be involved in is clean-up, debris removal, looking at any damaged homes and securing those with roof tarping," he said.

And a second Victorian contingent of about 60 volunteers has been flown to Sydney and will be deployed to Newcastle.  The first contingent left over the weekend to assist in Gosford and Wyong and will return tomorrow.  Victoria's SES says it is happy to help NSW emergency crews in the clean-up.

Iemma meets mayors

New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma has met mayors from across the Hunter region to discuss rebuilding the region.

Mr Iemma has visited the isolated farming community of Hinton, in the lower Hunter, which has been cut-off due to the flooding.  He says there were several common concerns, primarily infrastructure repair, focusing on roads and bridges.

Mr Iemma says the next priority was restoring water and electricity supplies, followed by quickly completing insurance assessments.  "The other main issues would be transport services, as the Hunter rail line is closed and that's indefinite," he said

Pasha Bulker

In other developments, millions of dollars worth of equipment has been brought in to prevent an oil spill from the grounded Pasha Bulker coal ship at Nobbys Beach in Newcastle.

The coal ship has been stuck since Friday and salvage crews are developing a plan to move it.  One salvage tug has already arrived and another is due tomorrow.

New South Wales Ports Minister Joe Tripodi says special booms, pumps and skimmers can be activated immediately if there is a spill.  "We have here two types of equipment - salvage equipment and oil containment equipment," he said.  "The oil containment equipment is mostly the property of the Sydney Port Corporation and the Newcastle Port Corporation, and we also have Melbourne assisting and there's also people from Brisbane."

Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokesman Keith Brown says the main focus is preventing such an oil spill.  "The equipment we've got is the best equipment money can buy, so I think we're as prepared as we can be to clean-up in case there's an oil spill," he said.

The wild weather has brought the Hunter's coal industry to its knees, cutting the freight rail line and restricting port operations.

But Newcastle Port Corporation chief executive Gary Webb says ship loading operations have resumed at the Port of Newcastle.  "We have just seen the first outward-bound vessel from this area of the basin and my understanding is there are four coal vessels about to leave this afternoon," he said.