Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has landed in flood-ravaged NSW alongside army personnel and scores of emergency crews to bolster the recovery process.

Some 70 defence personnel have been deployed to aid with the mop-up in the latest natural disaster to hit NSW, which has claimed five lives and left hundreds of homes uninhabitable.

On Tuesday, Albanese visited Milton Johnson’s dairy farms as well as overalls-clad emergency members and army troops at Taree’s SES operations centre.

Damage assessments continue in the region, with some 794 premises including homes and businesses on the mid-north coast already deemed uninhabitable, SES spokesman Matt Heap said.

That dwellings figure is expected to sharply rise.

Weather conditions are set to ease from Wednesday but damaging winds will pass through the region first.

“We do have damaging wind warnings … that includes the high elevated parts of the mid-north coast and northern Hunter,” senior meteorologist Dean Narramore from the Bureau of Meteorology said on Tuesday.

“We could see showers develop this afternoon with strong and gusty winds but those conditions should ease tonight and then they’ll clear out by Wednesday.”

Affected locals have been picking up muddied possessions and surveying damage, while drones have been used to drop hay to isolated farms and for aerial welfare checks at properties.

Nadia Zarb, artist and gallery owner in Taree, one of the worst-hit towns, said she could not have coped without community support.

“We’ve got the best community, we’ve got the support around us and I couldn’t ask for anything more,” she said.

Michael Kemp, state MP for Oxley — which covers four local government areas on the Mid North Coast — said it was tough seeing “people’s livelihoods on the side of the kerb”.

Insurers have already received more than 4000 claims.

The crisis has prompted federal-state natural disaster recovery arrangements, including small loans for business, which have been activated for 19 local government areas.

“I can assure everybody on the mid-north coast that those agencies are working around the clock to get those communities back up on their feet,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said.

But NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders said farmers needed more than loans to help recover from the disaster.

“What they need is a helping hand in the form of a grant to enable them to uplift their business,” Saunders said in Taree.

“The feeling is a little bit starting to get angry now as people wonder where the support actually is.”

-AAP