Residents of the mid-north coast of New South Wales have described anxious waits for rescue in the dark as unprecedented flooding inundates homes and businesses across the region.
The State Emergency Service has performed 130 rescues in the past 24 hours, the bulk of those occurring in Taree, Wingham and Glenthorne.
Glenthorne resident Jordan Halloran gave the ABC an eyewitness account of flooding that had left her stranded on the top level of her house with her partner and two-year-old son.
“It’s about probably 600 [cm] off coming into the top level of our house. The main concern is our 2-year-old son who is here with us and two dogs. Even more of a priority is our neighbour’s house which is about to be inundated with water,” she said.
“We’re awaiting rescue since 1am. They said the only way to get us out is with a chopper and there aren’t any. We do feel there’s access through the back of the house. That’s much calmer…”
Halloran said the amount of water exceeded what she had experienced during floods in the town in 2021.
The Manning River at Taree is flooding at levels not seen before, surpassing the 1929 record of six metres on Wednesday morning and rising, the SES said.
Taree resident Holly Pillotto spoke to Nine’s Today from the upper level of her home where she had been stranded since Tuesday night.
“Our neighbours on the back verandah here are also stranded,” she said. “It’s a really dangerous spot to be … we do really just want to get some rescue squad out here, and get it happening now that it’s daylight.”
The weather bureau has warned of “lots of flooding to come” after intense rain has caused the Manning River to rise to its highest level in almost 100 years.
A Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist, Dean Narramore, forecast 50mm to 150mm rainfall in parts of the state north of Forster on Wednesday, with isolated falls in excess of 200m possible.
Narramore said some areas had been inundated by 300mm to 400mm of rain – the town of Taree even more – causing widespread flash flooding and major river flooding.
He said the floods would probably not ease until later in the week as a slow-moving weather system continued to dump rain on the region.
“[The weather system] wobbles north today and then it will probably come back south, unfortunately, tomorrow, and then finally clearing out on Friday from the mid-north coast,” he said.
“[There are] still two days of rainfall on the way, with lots of flooding to come.”
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Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Kempsey, Sawtell, Dorrigo, Barrington Tops, Wingham and Yarrowitch were in line for more rain.
Locals around the Manning River were warned to evacuate on Tuesday evening as the river surged past major flood levels.
By Wednesday morning the river was at a level “never seen before” at Taree, , the SES said .
In the past 24 hours, the SES responded to 892 calls, including 130 flood rescues, the bulk of which were in Taree, Wingham and Glenthorne.
The rescues included several cars caught driving into flood water and, as the night progressed, many people reported rising water into their homes, with some needing to seek refuge on their roofs, the SES said.
“Unfortunately, we’ve … had a large number of calls for help in areas that were subject to evacuation warnings and we are still assessing how best to access those locations,” the state duty commander, Assistant Commissioner Colin Malone, said on Wednesday.
Malone said SES teams had undertaken a significant number of rescues at Taree, Port Macquarie and Ghini Ghini through the night.
In one of the more significant incidents overnight, 24 people were rescued from the flooded Pacific Highway at Ghini Ghini.
“This is a dynamic situation where a number of evacuation warnings were issued through Tuesday and overnight, with residents door knocked as well. The NSW SES and our emergency service partners are deploying every available asset to assist with these rescues,” Malone said.
In the state’s Hunter region, the Myall River is among the areas on flood watch, with residents warned to monitor forecasts and rainfall and be ready to move to higher ground.
For Ray, a cleaner at Bulahdelah’s Plough Inn Hotel, the rising river has already caused damage.
“My houseboat went,” he said. “I was looking across the jetty [Tuesday] morning and it wasn’t there. It’s the icing on the cake, [the weather has been on and off for the last couple of weeks.”
Catie McLeod contributed to this report
